Skip to main content Open Navigation Menu Give a gift Letter from the U.K. A Development Economist Returns to What He Left Behind Paul Collier spent decades studying the poorest countries on earth. Now he advises struggling towns in the place where he grew up. By Sam Knight November 19, 2025 The British Steel Scunthorpe Site, as seen on April 12, 2025. Photograph by Ryan Jenkinson / Getty Saved On a Friday morning last month, Professor Sir Paul Collier sat watching the proceedings of a community meeting at a sports club in Scunthorpe, a steel town in North Lincolnshire. Collier was dressed exactly like the renowned development economist that he is: comfortable hiking boots, checked shirt, beige slacks, tweed jacket, white beard. For decades, Collier immersed himself in the question of what makes poor countries grow, or fail to grow, mostly in Africa. He ran the research group at the World Bank and wrote papers on foreign aid, civil wars, and corruption. In 2007, his work fo...