Illicit Finance

In 2010 I calculated (for a Christian Aid report) that if Zambia had received in 2008 the same export prices in each copper category as had been declared on Swiss exports, then Zambia’s recorded GDP would have been 80 percent bigger.

What do Argentina, India, and South Africa have in common with Jersey, Cayman and the Turks and Caicos? They’ve just agreed to share financial information with each other, for tax purposes. 

The African Development Bank estimates that illicit financial flows have drained in excess of a trillion dollars from Africa since 1980. These flows undermine the tax base, damage political institutions and exacerbate inequality. With major momentum behind global counter-measures, there ar...

CGD studies the ways that the richest countries affect the rest of the world, far beyond foreign aid. And the US massively shapes economic development in its neighbors to the south. The 2,000 mile border between the United States and Mexico is an economic cliff, the largest GDP per capita differenti...

This Q&A was originally posted at Democracy in Africa. 1. Tell us a bit about your work with the Center for Global Development CGD is a ‘think and do tank’ established in Washington, DC in 2001, doing rigorous research with the aim of producing policy proposals to improve the ...

This week the World Economic Forum holds its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. As the great and good gather to chart the direction of the global economy, there will be much talk of development, of transparency, and of the importance of trade. In light of our new research showing t...