France
Commitment to Development Index 2012
France
David Roodman and Julia Clark
The Commitment to Development Index (CDI) ranks 27 of the world’s richest countries based on their dedication to policies that benefit poor nations. Looking beyond standard comparisons of foreign aid flows, the CDI measures national policies in seven areas that are important to developing countries: aid, trade, investment, migration, environment, security and technology. This report reviews France’s performance on the 2012 CDI. For more details, visit cgdev.org/cdi.
Denmark Norway Sweden Luxembourg Austria Netherlands Finland New Zealand United Kingdom Portugal Canada Germany Belgium France Spain Australia Ireland Switzerland United States Italy Greece Hungary Slovakia Czech Republic Poland Japan South Korea
Overall Score
France’s 2012 CDI Performance n Overall rank 2012: 13 n Overall score 2012: 5.3 n Change since 2003: +1.0 (using 2012 methodology) France ranks 13 overall in 2012. France scores highest on the investment and technology components, thanks to laws that prevent double taxation for foreign investors, pension investments in emerging markets, and strong government support for research and development. But France’s performance is weakened by its immigration record, with few immigrants entering France from poor countries. It is also one of the world’s largest exporters of arms to undemocratic governments.
France’s CDI Performance, 2003–12 2003
Aid
2012
Trade Investment
th
Migration Environment Security Technology Overall
0
www.cgdev.org/cdi
4
8
12
16
France Country Report
Aid
Aid quality is just as important as aid quantity, so the CDI measures gross aid as a share of GDP adjusted for various quality factors: it subtracts debt service, penalizes “tied” aid that makes recipients spend aid only on donor goods and services, rewards aid to poor but relatively well-governed recipients, and penalizes overloading poor governments with many small projects.
Rich-country investment in poorer countries can transfer technologies, upgrade management and create jobs. The CDI includes a checklist of policies that support healthy investment in developing countries.
n Score: 6.1 n Rank: 6 Strengths
n Score: 4.2 n Rank: 13
- Employs tax-sparing arrangements to prevent double taxation of corporate profits earned abroad - Supports the Multi-Donor Trust Fund for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) - Provides official support for outflows of portfolio investment
Strengths - Small share of tied or partially tied aid (4.9%; rank: 8)
Weaknesses - Allows project proliferation; small average project size (rank: 16) - Large share of aid to less poor and relatively worse-governed recipients (selectivity rank: 13)
Trade
International trade has been a force for economic development for centuries. The CDI measures trade barriers in rich countries against exports from developing countries.
n Score: 5.6 n Rank: 13
Weaknesses - Loopholes in domestic legislation permit bribe payers to circumvent the OECD Convention on Bribery - Political risk insurance given to inefficient, import-substituting projects
Migration
The movement of people from poor to rich countries provides unskilled immigrants with jobs, income and knowledge. This increases the flow of money sent home by migrants abroad and the transfer of skills when the migrants return.
n Score: 4.0 n Rank: 19
Strengths - Low tariffs on textiles (6.4% of the value of imports; rank: 3) - Low tariffs on apparel (6.4% of the value of imports; rank: 3) - High level of manufactures imports from poorer countries (10.1% of GDP per capita; rank: 4)
Weaknesses - High agricultural subsidies (equivalent to a tariff worth 11.9% of the value of imports; rank: 15)
Center for Global Development
Investment
Strengths - Large share of foreign students from developing countries (81%; rank: 6) - Tuition for foreign students the same as for nationals
Weaknesses - Only a small increase during the 1990s in the number of unskilled immigrants from developing countries living in France (rank by share of population: 20) - Small number of immigrants from developing countries entering France (rank by share of population: 20)
France Country Report
www.cgdev.org/cdi
Environment
Rich countries use a disproportionate amount of scarce resources, and poor countries are most vulnerable to global warming and ecological deterioration, so the CDI measures the impact of policies on the global climate, fisheries, and biodiversity.
n Score: 6.9 n Rank: 10
Technology
Rich countries contribute to development through the creation and dissemination of new technologies. The CDI captures this by measuring government support for R&D and penalizing strong intellectual property rights regimes that limit the dissemination of new technologies to poor countries.
n Score: 6.6 n Rank: 3
Strengths - Low fossil fuel production rate per capita (0.0 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 1) - Low greenhouse gas emissions rate per capita (7.7 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 7) - Low consumption of ozone-depleting chemicals per capita (rank: 1)
Weaknesses - High fishing subsidies (rank: 17)
Security
Since security is a prerequisite for development, the CDI rewards contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping operations and forcible humanitarian interventions, military protection of global sea lanes, and participation in international security treaties. It also penalizes arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments.
n Score: 3.7 n Rank: 20
Strengths - High tax subsidy rate to businesses for R&D (rank: 1)
Weaknesses - Large share of government R&D expenditure on defense (7.6%; rank: 23) - Pushes to extend intellectual property rights in bilateral trade treaties (“TRIPS Plus” measures) that restrict the flow of innovations to developing countries - Imposes strict limitations on anti-circumvention technologies that can defeat encryption of copyrighted digital materials
For More Visit cgdev.org/cdi for the complete 2012 edition of the Commitment to Development Index. There, you can explore the numbers with our interactive graphing tool, view additional publications and background papers, and dive deeper into the CDI methodology by downloading our data and code.
Strengths - Significant personnel contributions to internationally-sanctioned peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions over last decade (rank by share of GDP: 2) - Military ships stationed in sea lanes that are important to international trade (rank by share of GDP: 3) - Participates in major international security treaties and regimes
Weaknesses - High arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments (rank by share of GDP: 26)
Center for Global Development
France Country Report
www.cgdev.org/cdi
Commitment to Development Index 2012 Country Denmark Norway Sweden Luxembourg Austria Netherlands Finland New Zealand United Kingdom Portugal Canada Germany Belgium France Spain Australia Ireland Switzerland United States Italy Greece Hungary Slovakia Czech Republic Poland Japan South Korea
Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 11 13 13 15 15 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
Aid 11.5 13.0 12.6 13.0 3.1 9.5 6.6 3.3 6.8 3.1 5.0 3.9 6.4 4.2 4.0 4.3 7.5 5.2 3.2 1.3 1.6 0.8 0.8 1.1 0.7 1.6 1.0
Trade 5.3 1.1 5.8 5.3 5.6 5.9 5.8 8.1 5.5 5.6 6.2 5.5 5.5 5.6 5.5 7.4 5.2 1.5 6.7 5.7 5.3 5.4 5.8 5.5 5.6 0.1 -1.3
Investment 4.7 6.1 5.3 4.2 4.8 6.3 5.1 4.3 6.3 5.2 6.1 6.3 5.3 6.1 5.9 6.1 2.9 4.4 5.0 5.4 4.0 3.6 2.9 3.9 4.1 5.2 5.6
Migration 6.2 9.9 7.8 6.8 11.7 5.5 4.4 6.4 4.7 4.0 7.0 6.9 5.0 4.0 5.4 4.2 2.8 8.6 5.2 4.7 6.4 1.7 0.6 1.3 0.6 1.9 1.3
Environment 6.8 3.2 7.3 5.5 6.2 6.7 7.4 6.2 7.2 7.2 2.5 6.9 7.0 6.9 6.4 3.8 6.5 5.8 4.3 6.7 5.9 7.9 8.3 7.2 7.4 4.5 4.2
Security 7.7 7.6 1.2 5.0 6.1 3.2 6.6 7.3 5.4 6.0 5.7 3.7 3.6 3.7 3.4 5.1 6.9 4.4 4.6 5.0 5.7 5.4 5.5 1.6 3.8 4.5 1.4
Technology 6.6 5.7 4.7 4.2 5.7 5.4 5.9 4.8 4.3 7.4 5.5 5.0 4.6 6.6 5.8 5.2 3.9 4.8 4.9 4.2 2.8 3.4 2.6 5.3 2.7 6.1 7.0
Overall Score 7.0 6.6 6.4 6.3 6.2 6.1 6.0 5.8 5.7 5.5 5.4 5.4 5.3 5.3 5.2 5.2 5.1 5.0 4.8 4.7 4.5 4.0 3.8 3.7 3.6 3.4 2.7
Change since 2003 -0.2 +0.7 -0.3 n/a +0.7 -0.1 +0.1 0.0 +0.7 +1.1 +0.3 +0.5 +0.5 +1.0 +0.7 +0.2 0.0 +0.2 +0.8 +0.7 +0.7 n/a n/a n/a n/a +1.3 n/a
The above table lists scores for each of the 27 CDI-ranked countries across seven policy areas. A country’s overall performance is the average of its seven component scores, each of which are scaled so that an average score in 2012 equals 5.0. The final column shows the change in each country’s overall score since the CDI began in 2003 (using 2012 methodology).
About The CDI The Commitment to Development Index has been compiled each year since 2003 by the Center for Global Development (CGD), an independent think tank that works to reduce global poverty and inequality through rigorous research and active engagement with the policy community. CGD senior fellow David Roodman is the chief architect of the CDI, and collaborators have included William R. Cline on trade; Theodore H. Moran on investment; Jeanne Batalova, Kimberly A. Hamilton, and Elizabeth Grieco on migration; Amy Cassara and Daniel Prager on environment; Michael E. O’Hanlon, Adriana Lins de Albuquerque, Mark Stoker and Jason Alderwick on security, and Keith Maskus and Walter Park on technology. The Index is supported by the CDI Consortium.
Center for Global Development
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