Paul Collier

Sir Paul Collier, (born 23 April 1949) is a British development economist who serves as the Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford and co-director of the International Growth Centre. He is also a Professeur invité at Sciences Po and a Professorial Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford.

He has served as a senior advisor to the Blair Commission for Africa and was the director of the Development Research Group at the World Bank between 1998 and 2003.

He has written for the ''New York Times'', the ''Financial Times'', the ''Wall Street Journal'', and the ''Washington Post''. In 2010 and 2011, he was named by ''Foreign Policy'' magazine on its list of top global thinkers.

From 2017-2018, Collier was the academic co-director of the LSE-Oxford Commission on State Fragility, Growth, and Development, and was a founding member of the International Growth Centre's Council on State Fragility.

Early life and education

Collier was born on 23 April 1949. Collier’s great-grandfather, Karl Hellenschmidt, was a German immigrant to the UK. During World War I, Collier’s grandfather, Karl Hellenschmidt Jr, changed his surname from Hellenschmidt to Collier.

Collier was brought up in Sheffield where he attended King Edward VII School, a state school. Both of Collier's parents left school at the age of 12. He studied Philosophy, politics, and economics at the University of Oxford, going on to also get his D.Phil from the University of Oxford.

Academic career

Collier is Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford and co-director of the International Growth Centre. He is currently a Professeur invité at Sciences Po and a Professorial Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford. Previously, he was a professor of economics in the Department of Economics at the University of Oxford and a professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

He was a founder of the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford and remained its director from 1989 until 2014. From 1998-2003, he took a five-year Public Service leave during which he was the director of the Development Research Group of the World Bank.

Collier is a specialist in the political, economic and developmental predicaments of low-income countries. His research covers the causes and consequences of civil war; the effects of aid and the problems of democracy in low-income and natural resources rich societies; urbanisation in low-income countries; private investment in African infrastructure and changing organisational cultures.

He has authored numerous books, many of which earned widespread recognition. Of note are '' The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It (2007), The Plundered Planet: Why We Must, and How We Can, Manage Nature for Global Prosperity,'' (2010), and ''The Future of Capitalism:'' ''Facing the New Anxieties'' (2018). His most recent book, ''Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places'' was published in June 2024.

Collier currently serves on the advisory board of Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP).

Honours

Collier has received a number of prestigious awards during his career. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours and was knighted in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to promoting research and policy change in Africa.

In November 2014, Collier was awarded the President's Medal by the British Academy, for "his pioneering contribution in bringing ideas from research in to policy within the field of African economics." In July 2017, Collier was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.

He was a Silver winner in the 2025 Axiom Business Book Awards in the Economics category for his latest book, ''Left Behind''. He has also been awarded the Adam Smith Prize by Glasgow's Philosophical Society (2023), the Citizenship Award by P&V Foundation in Belgium (2017), Richardson Lifetime Achievement Award (2016), A.SK Prize in Social Science (2013), Estoril Prize (2009), Corine Prize (2008), Lionel Gelber Prize (2008), Arthur Ross Prize (2008), and Thompson 'Current Classic' Award for the most cited article (2010).

He was given an Honorary Fellowship at Trinity College, Oxford, in 2010 and honorary doctorate degrees from Universite d'Auvergne (2007), University of Sheffield (2008), and University of Antwerp (2014).

Work

Books

* ''Labour and Poverty in Rural Tanzania: Ujamaa and Rural Development in the United Republic of Tanzania'', Oxford University Press, New York, 1991 .
* '' The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It'', Oxford University Press, 2007 .
* ''Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places'', Harper, March 2009 .
* ''The Plundered Planet: Why We Must, and How We Can, Manage Nature for Global Prosperity'', Oxford University Press, 2010 .
* ''Plundered Nations?: Successes and Failures in Natural Resource Extraction'' co-edited with Anthony J. Venables, Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2011 .
* '' Exodus: How Migration is Changing Our World'', Oxford University Press, October 2013 .
* ''Refuge: Rethinking Refugee Policy in a Changing World'' with Alexander Betts, Oxford University Press, September 2017 .
* ''The Future of Capitalism: Facing the New Anxieties'', Allen Lane, April 2018 .
* ''Greed Is Dead: Politics After Individualism'' with John Kay, Allen Lane, July 2020 ISBN 978-0241467954
* ''Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places,'' Allen Lane, June 2024 ISBN 9780241279168.

Selected articles

* (with Anke Hoeffler) 'On economic causes of civil war' ''Oxford Economic Papers'', vol 50 issue 4, 1998, pp. 563–573.
* (with V. L. Elliott, Håvard Hegre, Anke Hoeffler, Marta Reynal-Querol, Nicholas Sambanis
'Breaking the Conflict Trap: Civil War and Development Policy'
"World Bank Policy Research Report," 2003.
* (with Anke Hoeffler) 'Greed and grievance in civil war' ''Oxford Economic Papers'', vol 56 issue 4, 2004, pp. 563–595.
* (with Lisa Chauvet and Haavard Hegre) 'The Security Challenge in Conflict-Prone Countries', Copenhagen Consensus 2008 Challenge Paper, 2008.

Video

The Royal Economic Society's 2006 Annual Public Lecture
by Collier at the (Royal Economic Society)

Interview with Fareed Zakaria on Foreign Exchange

TED Conference, Paul Collier on "The Bottom Billion"


* ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0t4uq-gpUA Why social science should integrate culture and how to do it? at the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University, January 2017

Press

Review of The Plundered Planet
by the Financial Times

Review of the Bottom Billion by the Financial Times


* [https://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2008/grove150808.html Samuel Grove, "The Bottom of the Barrel: A Review of Paul Collier's ''The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done about It''."]

See also

* Environmental politics

References

External links

Paul Collier's home page at the Blavatnik School of Government


* ttps://writerinterviews.blogspot.com/2007/08/paul-collier.html Interview with Paul Collier by J. Tyler Dickovick*

Video of recent talk at Oxford University – "The Bottom Billion"
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TED Talks: Paul Collier: The "bottom billion" (TED2008)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Collier, Paul
1949 births
British economists
British development economists
Climate economists
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Fellows of St Antony's College, Oxford
Fellows of Trinity College, Oxford
Knights Bachelor
Living people
People educated at King Edward VII School, Sheffield
British sustainability advocates
Recipients of the President's Medal (British Academy)
Fellows of the British Academy
British people of German descent
Alumni of the University of Oxford