Why Poor Countries Are Poor

Tim Harford on the corruption-based economy of Cameroon.
He finds a new school library that will never house any books because the roof wasn’t built to withstand the country’s rainy season.

Consider the situation: money that was provided because of social networks rather than need; a project designed for prestige rather than use; a lack of monitoring and accountability; and an architect appointed for show by somebody with little interest in the quality of the work. The outcome is hardly surprising: A project that should never have been built was built, and built badly. The lesson of the story might appear to be that self-interested and ambitious people in power are often the cause of wastefulness in developing countries. But self-interested and ambitious people are in positions of power, great and small, all over the world. In many places, they are restrained by the law, the press, and democratic opposition. Cameroon’s tragedy is that there is nothing to hold self-interest in check.

Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on March 25th, 2006 at 3:34 pm

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