The World Bank (WB) was found in accordance with the Bretton Woods agreement in 1944 with the mission of assisting post war reconstruction and alleviating poverty. The WB is an international institution that aims to expand development through the allocation of loans in developing countries with...

This is the 2007 Edition of the only book in print in the world about the Single Global Currency, and is the only book in the world priced in 143 currencies (down from 147 in the 2006 edition.).This number is significant, as it's the number of currencies required among the 192 U.N. members to...

Abstract This paper provides a critical analysis of the World Bank’s new thinking on industrial policy. After outlining the changing perspectives on industrial policy put forward by the World Bank over the last three decades, we argue that the bank’s economists have taken one step forward...

One feature of adjustment loans that has been often overlooked in their evaluation is their frequent repetition to the same country, with such extremes as the 30 IMF and World Bank adjustment loans to Argentina over 1980-99 or the 26 adjustment loans to Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. The rate of...

Impact evaluation provides a measure of aid effectiveness, that is how good development aid is at reducing poverty. Critics of aid argue that there have been few attempts to measure its impact. This may have been true in the past, but there is a growing body of literature on impact evaluation....

Abstract The Asian economic crisis which began with the floating of the bhat by Thailand on July 1 1997 is still having devastating effects on the livelihood and the well being of millions of people in many parts of the world. The financial crisis spread from Thailand to other Asian countries,...

This contribution examines how gender equality features in the World Bank's World Development Report 2006: Equity and Development, focusing on its conceptual framework, use of empirical evidence, and policy recommendations. It concludes that despite acknowledging that liberalization and...

International organizations have expressed widespread agreement that gender equality is an important social and economic goal. Well-being is a multidimensional measure of material status and encompasses income, health, education, empowerment, relative economic and social status, and security,...

During the early nineteen sixties, Albert Hirschman negotiated with the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development, part of the World Bank group, the financial support that he needed for an extended visit to several WB development projects scattered throughout the poor areas of the...

Despite debt relief under the HIPC Initiative, African countries are still vulnerable to the risk of debt distress. The debt sustainability framework therefore remains an essential tool. The management of this tool must be flexible in order to take account of development goals and allow its...