The last 15 years have seen broad operational changes in the international system, accompanied since the beginning of the 1980s by a change in economic philosophy in a number of important industrial countries. Professor Bird examines the effects of various features of the post-Bretton Woods era...

The mounting balance of payments difficulties of most developing countries raise the question whether they are not aggravated by an international monetary system which is tailored to the requirements of industrialized countries and how the existing system could possibly be adapted to the needs...

The adjustment crisis of the oil-importing developing countries has raised the question as to the specific roles of the IMF and the World Bank in the process of structural adjustment and the actual relationship between their different concepts and programmes. What are the areas of cooperation...

A link between the creation of Special Drawing Rights and the financing of development aid is under discussion in order to meet the developing countries' demands for an adequate supply with international liquidity. This article expounds critically a number of objections raised against this concept.

A sudden and radical reversal of financial flows to developing countries has occurred since 1982. Controversy exists, however, as to the scale of the actual outflow of resources and as to whether too much emphasis has been placed in the past on adjustment efforts. The following article attempts...

So far, it has been possible to stave off really serious consequences for the world economy and the international financial system since the developing-country debt crisis started in 1982. Yet for many developing countries, external debt problems and the underlying economic crisis are as...

A fundamental change is emerging in the World Bank's perception of the problems of the debt overhang and in its ideas for development strategies. The author examines the implications for debtor countries.