The Bank introduced adjustment lending in 1979 to help member countries restructure their economies to create conditions conducive to equitable growth while maintaining a sustainable balance of payments. A review of the experience of other nations with adjustment problems may provide useful...

Using a methodology that allows for endogenizing decisions to participate in World Bank adjustment lending programs, and for testing the validity of assumptions about program participation, the author studies the effectiveness of these programs in sub - Saharan Africa. He shows that adjustment...

Drawing on conditionality and implementation information for 184 World Bank adjustment loans to 62 countries during the 1980s, the authors examine the macroeconomic underpinnings of Bank supported adjustment programs. After looking at recent experience with macroeconomic conditionality they...

Recent estimates of the welfare cost of consumption volatility find that it is significant in developing nations, where it may reach an equivalent of reducing consumption by 10 percent per year. Hence, examining the determinants of consumption volatility is of utmost relevance. Based on...

The 1994 World Bank study,"Adjustment in Africa: reforms, results, and the road ahead,"assessed the extent of, and economic payoffs from, policy reform in 29 countries in sub-Saharan Africa in the mid-1980s and 1990s. Here, the authors update the results of that report with 1992 macroeconomic...

The author provides theoretical and empirical evidence of a negative association between income inequality and real exchange rates. First, he builds a theoretical model showing the transmission mechanism from inequality to real exchange rates. Second, using cross-country data, he demonstrates...

Gabon is currently one of the richest countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, having a GDP per capita of close to $4,000, and is characterized by a stable political climate and rich forestry and mineral resources, aswell as a small population. Oil is the key economic sector, accounting for half of GDP...

The author presents and implements a methodology for assessing the success of structural adjustment based on a"fixed effect"method. He examines data for 75 countries over 11 years. Performance indicators include measures of inflation, economic growth, external balance, and physical investment....

Tanzania embarked on a structural adjustment program in 1986 after a decade of protracted economic decline. Its program was supported by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and was accompanied by a substantial increase in foreign assistance. After seven years of adjustment the...

This paper reports on tests of alternative hypotheses as to the effects of a budget deficit, examines the influence of the size of the government on economic growth, and investigates the impact of public investment on private investment, total investment, and economic growth. The findings have...