United Kingdom

2012 Results



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.


United Kingdom’s aid performance

  • Score: 6.8
  • Rank: 7

Strengths

  • High net aid volume as a share of the economy (0.57%; rank: 6)
  • No tied or partially tied aid (rank: 1)
  • Prevents project proliferation: large average project size (rank: 8)

Weaknesses

  • Large share of aid to less poor and worse-governed recipients (selectivity rank: 26)

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.


United Kingdom’s trade performance

  • Score: 5.5
  • Rank: 14

Strengths

  • Low tariffs on textiles (6.4% of the value of imports; rank: 3)
  • Low tariffs on apparel (6.4% of the value of imports; rank: 3)
  • High level of manufactures imports from poorer countries (10.1% of GDP per capita; rank: 4)

Weaknesses

  • High agricultural subsidies (equivalent to a tariff worth 12.2% of the value of imports; rank: 16)

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.


United Kingdom’s investment performance

  • Score: 6.3
  • Rank: 2

Strengths

  • 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
  • Vigorous prosecution of home-country bribe payers

Weaknesses

  • Loopholes in domestic legislation permit bribe payers to circumvent the OECD Convention on Bribery
  • Political risk insurance also given to inefficient, import-substituting projects

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 home.


United Kingdom’s migration performance

  • Score: 4.7
  • Rank: 16

Strengths

  • Bears share of the burden of refugees during humanitarian crises (rank: 10)

Weaknesses

  • Small increase during the 1990s in the number of unskilled immigrants living in the United Kingdom (rank by share of population: 19)
  • Small share of foreign students from developing countries (rank: 17)
  • Tuition for foreign students higher than for nationals

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.


United Kingdom’s environment performance

  • Score: 7.2
  • Rank: 8

Strengths

  • Low consumption of ozone-depleting chemicals per capita (rank: 1)
  • Low tropical timber imports ($7.15 per capita equivalent; rank: 4)
  • High gas taxes ($1.22 per liter; rank: 7)

Weaknesses

  • High fossil fuel production rate per capita (5.6 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 19)

Security

Since 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.


United Kingdom’s security performance

  • Score: 5.4
  • Rank: 12

Strengths

  • Significant financial and personnel contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions over last decade (rank by share of GDP: 5)
  • Military ships stationed in sea lanes that are important to international trade (rank by share of GDP: 2)
  • Participates in major international security treaties and regimes

Weaknesses

  • High level of arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments (rank by share of GDP: 22)

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.


United Kingdom’s technology performance

  • Score: 4.3
  • Rank: 20

Strengths

  • High tax subsidy rate to businesses for R&D (rank: 10)

Weaknesses

  • Large share of government R&D expenditure on defense (rank by share of GDP: 26)
  • Allows patents on plant and animal varieties
  • Offers patent-like proprietary rights to developers of data compilations, including those assembled from data in the public domain
  • Pushes to incorporate into bilateral free trade agreements “TRIPS-Plus” measures that restrict the flow of innovations to developing countries