Denmark

Aid

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.

• Score: 10.0
• Rank: 1

• Very high net aid volume as a share of the economy (0.89%; rank: 2)
• Prevents project proliferation; large average project size (rank: 7)
• Selectivity: large share of aid to less poor and relatively less democratic governments (rank: 2)

• Small amount of private charitable giving attributable to tax policy (rank by share of GNI: 14)

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: 5.9
• Rank: 16

• High protection of agricultural commodities (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.

• Score: 5.3
• Rank: 17

• Employs foreign tax credits to prevent double taxation of corporate profits earned abroad
• Provides official assistance to developing countries to set up investment promotion agencies

• Does not screen projects for social impacts through national political risk agency
• Does not allow domestic investors to take advantage of developing country tax incentives
• Has yet to complete Phase 2 monitoring of implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention
• Does not participate in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)
• Does not provide official support for outflows of portfolio investment

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.

• Score: 5.0
• Rank: 7

• Bears large share of the burden of refugees during humanitarian crises (rank: 3)
• Large increase during the 1990s in the number of unskilled immigrants from developing countries living in Denmark (rank by share of population: 8)
• No tuition fee for foreign students

• Small number of immigrants from developing countries entering Denmark in 2004 (rank by share of population: 15)

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.

• Score: 6.1
• Rank: 11

• Policy to regulate imports of illegally cut timber
• Large decline in greenhouse gas emissions rate in 1994–2004 (average annual growth rate/PPP GDP, –4.2%; rank: 2)

• High fishing subsidies (rank: 21)
• High greenhouse gas emissions rate per capita (13 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 13)

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.

• Score: 6.9
• Rank: 4

• Significant financial and personnel contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions (overall contribution rank over last 10 years by share of GDP: 5)
• No arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments

• No protection of global sea lanes

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.

Denmark Overall

• Score: 5.5
• Rank: 7

• High tax subsidy rate to businesses for R&D (17.8%; rank: 6)
• Low share of government R&D expenditure on defense (0.5%; rank: 5)

• Offers patent-like proprietary rights to developers of data compilations, including those assembled from data in the public domain
• Imposes strict limitations on anti-circumvention technologies that can defeat encryption of copyrighted digital materials