Book review: Paul Collier, “The Bottom Billion”, Oxford University Press, 2007

Paul Collier’s recent publication: ”The Bottom Billion” tries to give an answer to the question stated on the cover: why are the poorest countries failing and what can be done about it? Collier points at fifty states claiming that the real problem lies there, affecting circa one billion of their population. The sources of the decline in living standards are identified in four groups: the trap of a conflict, natural resources – usually being a part of the problem, less frequently part of the solution, the problem of being landlocked by “bad neighbors” and last but not least – bad governance.