This book examines why some nations prosper while others remain poor. It uses a six-country sample, broken down into pairs- the Cayman Islands and Jamaica; the Dominican Republic and Haiti; and Zimbabwe and Botswana. The book employed a combination of qualitative exploration and econometric analyses to investigate a set of economic, governance, resource and historical factors which were used as bases of comparison and found that the rule of law and the relative strengths of the institutions of governance made the greatest difference to the wealth and poverty of states. The findings also led to the development of arguably one of the most novel mathematical applications in the study of modern economics - the Resource Induced Poverty Reducing Economic Condition (RIPREC), which scientifically models the relationship between human capital and technological rates of progress, necessary to optimize poverty reduction and economic growth.