Best and Worst Performers

In 2013 Denmark has the best overall score because of very good and consistent performance across the components, even though it does not rank fi rst in any of them. Japan and South Korea take the last places, ranking average or below in all but the technology component.

Sweden ranks best on aid because it provides 0.97 percent of its GDP in foreign assistance, does not tie aid, and resists overloading recipients with too many small projects. Poland ranks worst because it has a small budget relative to its economy, does not report tying (so all its aid is considered tied), and provides aid to not-so-poor and rather undemocratic countries. New Zealand performs best on trade, imposing among the lowest tariffs on developing countries’ imports and few legal restrictions on purchasing services from other countries. South Korea has the unwelcome distinction of a negative score on trade, because it imposes among the highest tariffs and imposes vast legal restrictions on services from elsewhere. Finland does best on finance because of very good financial transparency and support to investment in developing countries. Switzerland comes last, mainly because it lacks financial transparency and does not have a national agency to offer political risk insurance. Norway takes first place on migration, accepting the most migrants for its size and bearing a large share of refugee burden, unlike the last-ranked Slovakia, which is relatively closed to migrants from developing countries. By contrast, Slovakia is in first place on environment because of high gasoline taxes and low greenhouse gas emissions. Canada is not party to the Kyoto Protocol and has high fossil-fuel production, high greenhouse gas emissions, and low gas taxes, putting it at the bottom.

Countries with very similar ranks in most other components—Norway and Sweden—finish on opposite ends in security. Last-ranked Sweden is proportionally the largest arms exporter to developing countries and does not help protect sea lanes. Top-ranked Norway is rewarded for its high contribution to peacekeeping, minimal arms exports, and participation in security treaties. South Korea, which finishes last overall in the CDI, makes its highest contribution to development through technology, owing to high government support for research and development. Poland ranks last on that component, spending only 0.3 percent of GDP on R&D (as opposed to South Korea’s 1 percent). In short, all countries could do much more to spread prosperity.