United States
Commitment to Development Index 2012
United States 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 the United States’ 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
United States’ 2012 CDI Performance n Overall rank 2011: 19 n Overall score 2011: 4.8 n Change since 2003: +0.8 (using 2012 methodology) The United States ranks 19th overall in 2012. US barriers against developing country agricultural exports are lower than those of most CDI countries, and the US provides significant contributions to internationally approved military interventions as well as the most protection of sea lanes important for international trade. But the United States finishes near the bottom of the rankings in foreign aid, investment, and environment components, and its security score is weakened by a high level of arms exports to poor and undemocratic countries and non-participation in key international arms control treaties. US foreign aid is small as a share of its income and it “ties” a large share of this aid to the purchase of US goods and services. The United States also has the lowest gas taxes and among the highest greenhouse gas emission and fuel production rates per person. www.cgdev.org/cdi
United States’ CDI Performance, 2003–12 2003
Aid
2012
Trade Investment Migration Environment Security Technology Overall
0
4
8
12
16
United States 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.
Investment
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: 5.0 n Rank: 16 Strengths
n Score: 3.2 n Rank: 17 - Large amount of private charitable giving attributable to tax policy (rank as a share of GDP: 2) - Prevents project proliferation; larger average project size (rank: 9)
- Employs foreign tax credits to prevent double taxation of corporate profits earned abroad - Active participation and leadership in extractive industries transparency initiatives, including the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the Kimberley Process on blood diamonds - Provides support for outflows of portfolio investment
Weaknesses
Weaknesses
Strengths
- Low net aid volume as a share of the economy (0.21%; rank: 19) - Large share of aid to less poor and worse-governed recipients (selectivity rank: 23) - Large share of tied or partially tied aid (22%; rank: 18)
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: 6.7 n Rank: 3
- Limits political risk insurance to domestically owned firms - Political risk insurance does not support labor-intensive or sensitive industry and agricultural investments - Imposes some restrictions on pension fund investments in emerging markets
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.
Strengths
n Score: 5.2 n Rank: 13
- Low tariffs on agricultural products (4.5% of the value of imports; rank: 3)
Strengths
Weaknesses - High barriers against textiles (8.8% of the value of imports; rank: 23) - H igh barriers against apparel (9.8% of the value of imports; rank: 23)
- Large increase during the 1990s in the number of unskilled immigrants from developing countries living in the United States (rank by share of population: 3)
Weaknesses - Bears small share of the burden of refugees during humanitarian crises (rank: 21) - Small number of immigrants from developing countries entering the United States (rank by share of population: 18) - Tuition for foreign students higher than for nationals
Center for Global Development
United States 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: 4.3 n Rank: 23
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: 4.9 n Rank: 15
Strengths - Low tropical wood imports ($5.63 per person; rank: 2)
Weaknesses - High greenhouse gas emissions rate per capita (18.6 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 24) - High fossil fuel production rate per capita (14.4 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank 24) - Low gas taxes ($0.13 per liter; rank: 27) - Poor compliance with mandatory reporting requirements under multilateral environmental agreements relating to biodiversity (rank: 24) - Has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol on climate change
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.
Strengths - High government expenditure on R&D (rank by share of GDP: 5) - Does not offer patent-like proprietary rights to developers of data compilations, including those assembled from data in the public domain
Weaknesses - Large share of government R&D expenditure on defense (rank by share of GDP: 27) - Allows patents on plant and animal varieties - Allows patents on software programs - Pushes to incorporate into bilateral free trade agreements “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
n Score: 4.6 n Rank: 16 Strengths - Worldwide, has greatest number of military ships stationed in sea lanes that are vital to international trade (rank by share of GDP: 1) - Significant financial and personnel contributions to internationally sanctioned, non-UN peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions over last decade (rank by share of GDP: 8)
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.
Weaknesses - High arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments (rank by share of GDP: 23) - Has not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the Ottawa Treaty to ban anti-personnel landmines, or the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) - Not a party to the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Center for Global Development
United States 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.
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