Ranking the Rich
Wanted: More Data The World Bank, the United Nations, and other international agencies devote significant resources to collecting data on social and economic conditions in developing countries. However, the CGD/FP Commitment to Development Index (CDI) requires a different kind of informationdata on the activities of rich countries that are relevant to development in poor economies. ...
Wanted: More Data
Wanted: More Data
The World Bank, the United Nations, and other international agencies devote significant resources to collecting data on social and economic conditions in developing countries. However, the CGD/FP Commitment to Development Index (CDI) requires a different kind of informationdata on the activities of rich countries that are relevant to development in poor economies. Unfortunately, some of the pieces of information we needed are not available in comparable form from a single source. In some cases, we assembled comparable data one country at a time; in others, we were forced to use outcomes such as foreign direct investment as the best proxy measure for the policies that influence those outcomes. Below is a sampling of the data we wish were available.
(1) Internationally comparable data on international migration and labor movements, including legal inflows by country of origin, skill levels, length of stay, and other agreed categories (such as students and workers on temporary visits)
(2) Data on the impact of rich nations domestic producer subsidies on trade
(3) Data on the tax treatment of developing-country assets held in rich nations and on the income earned by those assets in rich nations; details on tax-information agreements (if any) between developing countries and each of the 21 countries in the ranking
(4) Internationally comparable data on private aid flows from rich countries to poor ones, including aid from churches, foundations, and other voluntary organizations; data on remittances from migrants back to their home countries
(5) Data assessing how rich countries affect the security environment of poor countries, from U.S. contributions to keeping major sea-lanes open for trade to French and British subsidies for arms sales to developing countries
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