Based on research by Andy Sumner,[1][2] a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, the New Bottom Billion raises serious questions about Paul Collier’s original Bottom Billion thesis, particularly in relation to its claims regarding the geographical distribution of global poverty.
While Collier argued that the Bottom Billion are to be found in the poorest 60 or so economies,[3] Sumner's research shows that the majority of the world's poor actually live in MICs such as China, India, Nigeria and Indonesia.
The New Bottom Billion therefore suggests that poverty is not just a Low Income Country (LIC) problem, and that further policy discussions are called for.
The New Bottom Billion has received significant coverage in a diverse range of independent sources, including The Economist, OECD Insights, and various third-party blogs (see External Links below).
This might mean that governance and domestic taxation and redistribution policies become of more importance than Official Development Assistance (ODA).