The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It

Paul Collier

"In this elegant and impassioned synthesis from one of the world's leading experts on Africa and poverty, economist Paul Collier writes persuasively that although nearly five billion of the world's people are beginning to climb from desperate poverty and to benefit from globalization's reach to developing countries, there is a "bottom billion" of the world's poor whose countries, largely immune to the forces of global economy, are falling farther behind and are in danger of falling apart, separating permanently and tragically from the rest of the world.

Business & EconomicsBusiness & Economics · medium confidenceBusiness & Economics81 signalsLlm Classifier: Business & Economics -> Business & EconomicsAward Category: PROSE Award for Economics -> Business & EconomicsKeyword Classifier: Business & Economics -> Business & EconomicsBusiness, Capitalism & CorporationsClass, Poverty & InequalityMoney, Markets & Economic PolicyAfrica & the African Diaspora
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    A distinct “bottom billion” in countries largely immune to global economic forces is falling farther behind and faces long-term danger of permanently separating from the rest of the world.

    Model confidence 62%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    35 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 66%.