United States

Aid

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.

• Score: 1.9
• Rank: 19

• Strong on project proliferation (less than 1% of U.S. development projects cost under $100,000; rank: 3)
• Large amount of private charitable giving attributable to tax policy (rank as a share of GDP: 3)

• Small net aid volume as a share of GDP (0.14%; rank: 20)
• Large share of tied aid (72%; rank: 20)
• Weak on selectivity; large share of aid to less poor and undemocratic governments (rank: 17)

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.

• Score: 7.2
• Rank: 4

• Low total aggregate protection of agricultural commodities (rank: 3)
• Low agricultural tariffs (rank: 3)

• High barriers against textiles (rank: 19)
• High barriers against apparel (rank: 18)

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 and productive investment in developing countries.

United States Overall

• Score: 6.7
• Rank: 5

• Participation in international anti-corruption agreements
• Provides official support for design of securities regulations and institutions in developing countries
• Provides official support for outflows of portfolio investment

• Political risk insurance eligibility limited to nationally-owned firms
• State restrictions on pension fund investments in emerging markets

Migration

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.

• Score: 4.7
• Rank: 12

• Large increase during the 1990s in the total number of unskilled immigrants from developing countries living in the U.S. (rank as a share of population: 5)
• Large share of foreign students from developing countries (77%; rank: 7)

• Small number of immigrants from developing countries entering the U.S. in 2003 (rank as a share of population: 16)
• Bears small share of the burden of refugees during humanitarian crises (rank: 16)

Environment

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.

• Score: 4.0
• Rank: 20

• Large decline in greenhouse gas emission rate between 1999-2003 (average annual growth rate/PPP GDP, -2.4%; rank: 9)
• Few tropical wood imports (rank: 3)
• Low coffee imports (3.8 kg per capita; rank: 7)

• High greenhouse gas emission rate per capita (25 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 20)
• Low gas taxes (rank: 21)
• No ratification of Kyoto Protocol on climate change
• Large number of endangered species imports (rank: 16)
• No ratification of UN Convention on Biodiversity
• No policy to regulate illegal timber imports

Security

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.

• Score: 6.2
• Rank: 8

• The most military ships in the world stationed in sea lanes important to international trade (rank as a share of GDP: 1)

• Arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments (rank as share of GDP: 19)

Technology

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.

• Score: 4.7
• Rank: 13

• High business expenditure on R&D as a share of GDP (rank: 5)
• High government expenditure on R&D as a share of GDP (rank: 2)

• Large share of government R&D expenditure on defense (46%; rank: 21)
• Allows patents on plant and animal varieties
• Allows patents on software programs
• Pushes to incorporate “TRIPS-Plus” policies in bilateral free trade agreements with developing countries
• Strict limitations on anti-circumvention technologies that can defeat encryption of copyrighted digital materials