Summary of Paul Collier's The Bottom Billion

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The third world has shrunk. For forty years, the development challenge has been a rich world of one billion people facing a poor world of five billion people. But the real challenge of development is that there is a group of countries at the bottom that are falling behind, and often falling apart.

#2 There are some societies that have fallen into poverty, and they are an unlucky minority. But they are still stuck there, and their leaders are not willing to change their ways.

#3 The concept of a development trap has been around for a long time. It refers to the consequences of malaria and other health problems, which keep countries poor. However, there are four traps that have received less attention: the conflict trap, the natural resources trap, the trap of being landlocked with bad neighbors, and the trap of bad governance in a small country.

#4 There are 980 million people living in trapped countries as of 2006. Most are in Africa, and most Africans are living in countries that have been in one or another of the traps.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822514300

IRB Media

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Insights on Paul Collier's The Bottom Billion

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The third world has shrunk. For forty years, the development challenge has been a rich world of one billion people facing a poor world of five billion people. But the real challenge of development is that there is a group of countries at the bottom that are falling behind, and often falling apart.

#2

There are some societies that have fallen into poverty, and they are an unlucky minority. But they are still stuck there, and their leaders are not willing to change their ways.

#3

The concept of a development trap has been around for a long time. It refers to the consequences of malaria and other health problems, which keep countries poor. However, there are four traps that have received less attention: the conflict trap, the natural resources trap, the trap of being landlocked with bad neighbors, and the trap of bad governance in a small country.

#4

There are 980 million people living in trapped countries as of 2006. Most are in Africa, and most Africans are living in countries that have been in one or another of the traps.

#5

The countries of the bottom billion have been doing poorly. They have average life expectancy of fifty years, 14 percent of children die before their first birthday, and 36 percent have symptoms of long-term malnutrition.

#6

The gap between the bottom billion and the rest of the developing world has always been there, but it has come about because the bottom billion have been trapped. The typical unit of income in Prosperia is not important, because the typical person’s experience does not count for much because they are poor.

#7

The bottom billion are still getting poorer, despite the 1990s being the golden decade for the rest of the developing world. The growth of the bottom billion is still much slower than even the slowest period of growth in the rest of the developing world.

#8

The bottom billion countries have been

Reviews for Summary of Paul Collier's The Bottom Billion

[Julie Mishol · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Paul Collier's book The Bottom Billion is not an easy read, but has some insights to try to understand how to help those who need it most. This summary breaks down the keys points and gives a good outline of Collier's ideas.