Norway Norway

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Overall score 2009: 6.6
Change since 2003: +0.5 (using 2009 methodology)

Norway ranks 3rd overall in 2009. Norway ranks first in the environment component, thanks to low, and still falling, greenhouse gas emissions and high gas taxes. Norway also gives a large amount of foreign aid as a share of its income and contributes significant finance and personnel to internationally sanctioned security operations. But Norway also employs some of the most restrictive trade barriers against poor countries, finishing third from the bottom in the trade component.

Norway Scores 2003-2007

2003: 10.6 2003: 1.2 2003: 4.2 2003: 6.5 2003: 5.9 2003: 10.6 2003: 5.2 2003: 6.3 2004: 11.3 2004: 1.3 2004: 4.2 2004: 6.3 2004: 7.1 2004: 10.3 2004: 5.4 2004: 6.6 2005: 12.6 2005: 1.4 2005: 4.2 2005: 6.3 2005: 8.1 2005: 9.7 2005: 5.5 2005: 6.8 2006: 11.0 2006: 1.7 2006: 5.7 2006: 5.9 2006: 7.4 2006: 9.2 2006: 5.9 2006: 6.7 2007: 11.3 2007: 1.7 2007: 5.7 2007: 5.9 2007: 7.5 2007: 8.3 2007: 5.1 2007: 6.5 2008: 11.0 2008: 1.4 2008: 5.6 2008: 6.4 2008: 7.5 2008: 8.3 2008: 5.6 2008: 6.6 Norway

CDI site with animation

 

Norway's 2009 Country Reports

2009 Results

Aid

What it measures

Aid quality is just as important as aid quantity, so the CDI measures gross aid as a share of GNI 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 uncorrupt recipients, and penalizes overloading poor governments with many small projects.

Norway Overall

  • Score: 11.7
  • Rank: 3

Norway Strengths

  • Highest net aid volume as a share of the economy (0.95%; rank: 1)
  • Small share of tied or partially tied aid (0.14%; rank: 4)
  • Large amount of private charitable giving attributable to tax policy (rank as a share of GDP: 6)

Norway Weaknesses

  • Contributes to project proliferation; small average project size (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: 1.2
  • Rank: 20

Norway Strengths

  • Low barriers against textiles (3.6% of the value of imports; rank: 1)
  • Low barriers against apparel (3.3% of the value of imports; rank: 1)

Norway Weaknesses

  • High tariffs on agricultural products (98.4% of the value of imports; rank: 19)
  • High agricultural subsidies (equivalent to 14.4% tariff; rank: 17)

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 investment in developing countries.

Norway Overall

  • Score: 5.5
  • Rank: 10

Norway Strengths

  • Provides insurance against political risk for both domestic and foreign firms
  • Employs foreign tax credits to prevent double taxation of corporate profits earned abroad
  • Participates in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the Kimberley Initiative on blood diamonds
  • Displays leadership in encouraging least developed countries to join the EITI and is one of four contributors to the World Bank Special Trust Fund to assist in its implementation

Norway Weaknesses

  • Political risk insurance also given to inefficient, import-substituting projects
  • Imposes some restrictions on pension fund investments in emerging markets

Migration

What it measures

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.

Norway Overall

  • Score: 6.7
  • Rank: 4

Norway Strengths

  • Bears large share of the burden of refugees during humanitarian crises (rank: 6)
  • Free tuition for foreign students and for nationals
  • Large increase during the 1990s in the number of unskilled immigrants from developing countries living in Norway (rank by share of population: 8)
  • Large number of immigrants from developing countries entering Norway (rank by share of population: 4)

Environment

What it measures

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.

Norway Overall

  • Score: 8.7
  • Rank: 1

Norway Strengths

  • Low greenhouse gas emissions rate per capita (6.3 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 2)
  • Greenhouse gas emissions grew little in 1997–2007 despite rapid GDP growth (average annual growth rate/GDP, –6.6%; rank: 1)
  • High gas taxes ($1.35 per liter; rank: 2)

Norway Weaknesses

  • High fishing subsidies ($2.18 per person; rank: 18)

Security

What it measures

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.

Norway Overall

  • Score: 7.3
  • Rank: 3

Norway Strengths

  • Significant financial and personnel contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions over last decade (rank by share of GDP: 4)

Technology

What it measures

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.

Norway Overall

  • Score: 5.1
  • Rank: 8

Norway Strengths

  • High tax subsidy rate to businesses for R&D (rank: 5)
  • Limited patent coverage for software programs

Norway Weaknesses

  • Offers patent-like proprietary rights to developers of data compilations, including those assembled from data in the public domain