Norway

2005 Results

Aid

What it measures

Aid quality is just as important as aid quantity, so the CDI adjusts gross aid as a share of GDP for various quality factors: it subtracts debt service, penalizes "tied" aid (making recipients spend aid money only on donor goods and services), rewards aid to poor but relatively un-corrupt recipients (and vice versa), and penalizes overloading poor governments with many small projects.

Norway Overall
  • Score: 10.8
  • Rank: 2
Norway Strengths
  • Very high net aid volume as a share of GDP (0.94%; rank: 1)
  • Small share of tied aid (0.1%; rank: 4)
  • Large amount of private charitable giving attributable to tax policy (rank as a share of GDP: 2)
Norway Weaknesses
  • Weak on project proliferation (5% of Norwegian development projects cost under $100,000; rank: 15)


Trade

What it measures

International trade has been a force for economic development for centuries. The CDI measures trade barriers in rich countries against exports from developing countries.

Norway Overall
  • Score: 1.0
  • Rank: 20
Norway Strengths
  • Low barriers against textiles (rank: 1)
  • Low barriers against apparel (rank: 1) 
Norway Weaknesses
  • High total aggregate protection of agricultural commodities (rank: 20)
  • High tariffs on agriculture (rank: 20)
  • High agricultural subsidies (rank: 19)


Investment

What it measures

Rich-country investment in poorer countries can transfer technologies, upgrade management, and create jobs. The CDI includes a checklist of policies that support healthy and productive investment in developing countries.

Norway Overall

  • Score: 5.8
  • Rank: 10
Norway Strengths
  • Wide official political risk insurance coverage
  • Participation in international anti-corruption agreements
  • Regulations to punish domestic bribe payers for actions abroad
Norway Weaknesses
  • Does not allow domestic investors to take advantage of developing country tax incentives
  • Allows foreign taxes as an expense instead of a credit


Migration

What it measures

The movement of people from poor to rich countries provides unskilled immigrants with jobs, income, and knowledge. All of this increases the growth and flow of remittances while abroad and the transfer of training and skills when the migrants return home.

Norway Overall
  • Score: 4.9
  • Rank: 10
Norway Strengths
  • Bears large share of the burden of refugees during humanitarian crises (rank: 6)
Norway Weaknesses
  • Small increase during the 1990s in the total number of unskilled immigrants from developing countries living in Norway (rank as a share of population: 10)


Environment

What it measures

Rich countries use a disproportionate amount of scarce resources and poor countries are most likely to be hurt by global warming and ecological deterioration, so the CDI measures the impact of environmental policies on the global climate, sustainable fisheries, and biodiversity.

Norway Overall
  • Score: 4.2
  • Rank: 19
Norway Strengths
  • Small number of endangered species imports (rank: 5)
Norway Weaknesses
  • Small decrease in greenhouse gas emission rate between 1999-2003 (average annual growth rate/PPP GDP, -1.3%; rank: 13
  • High fishing subsidies ($36.42 per person; rank: 21)
  • High coffee imports (8.1 kg per capita; rank: 16)


Security

What it measures

Based on the notion that security is a prerequisite for development, the CDI rewards contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping operations and forcible humanitarian interventions, rewards military protection of global sea lanes, and penalizes arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments.

Norway Overall
  • Score: 8.5
  • Rank: 1
Norway Strengths
  • Significant financial and personnel contributions during interventions in Bosnia and Kosovo (overall contribution rank over last 10 years as share of GDP: 1)
  • Few arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments
Norway Weaknesses
  • No protection of global sea lanes


Technology

What it measures

Rich countries can contribute to development through the creation and dissemination of new technologies. The CDI captures this by measuring government support for R&D and analyzing the strength of intellectual property rights regimes.

Norway Overall
  • Score: 5.2
  • Rank: 9
Norway Strengths
  • High tax subsidy rate to businesses for R&D (11%; rank: 7)
  • Limited patent coverage for software programs
Norway Weaknesses
  • Low business expenditure on R&D as a share of GDP (rank: 14)
  • Offers patent-like proprietary rights to developers of data compilations, including those assembled from data in the public domain