He suggests a number of relatively inexpensive but institutionally difficult changes: The book does not include a list of bottom billion countries because Collier believes this might lead to a "self-fulfilling prophecy".

[2] In his book Wars, Guns, and Votes, Collier lists the Bottom Billion, to "focus international effort":[11] Afghanistan, Angola, Azerbaijan, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Kazakhstan, Kenya, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Martin Wolf in the Financial Times called it "a splendid book" and "particularly enjoyed the attack on the misguided economics of many non-governmental organisations."

[15] William Easterly, an influential American economist specialising in economic growth and foreign aid, critically assessed The Bottom Billion in The Lancet.

For example, Collier makes much of the "conflict trap" and clearly poverty and civil war do occur together, but this may be, according to Easterly, "[perhaps] only because they are both symptoms of deeper problems, like Africa's weak states, ethnic antagonisms, and the legacy of the slave trade and colonial exploitation.

"[16] Collier counters, "At present the clarion call for the right is economist William Easterly's book The White Man's Burden.