Abstract
Following the introduction of its structural adjustment loans the World Bank became the object of the criticism that had until then been directed only at the IMF and its stabilisation and adjustment programmes. This article shows that structural adjustment loans do in fact take the traditional criticism into account. It then proceeds to analyse the various interests involved in order to highlight the constraints to which the Bank is subject in the formulation of its policy.
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See in this connection Manfred Hoithus: Die schriftliche Stellungnahme des HWWA-Instituts für Wirtschaftsforschung zur öffentlichen Anhörung von Sachverständigen zum Thema “Einfluß der von der Weltbank und dem Internationalen Währungsfonds geforderten Anpassungsprogramme auf die entwicklungspolitische Zusammenarbeit”, in: Deutscher Bundestag, 10. Wahlperiode, Ausschuß für Wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit 714–2450, p. 73.
For a discussion of this issue, see G. K. Helleiner: Stabilization, Adjustment, and the Poor, in: World Development, Vol. 15, No. 12, 1987, pp. 1499 ff.
Cf. G. M. G. Arrieta: Interest Rates, Savings, and Growth in LDCs: An Assessment of Recent Empirical Research, in: World Development, Vol. 16, No. 5, 1988, pp. 589 ff.; and D. R. Khatkhate: Assessing the Impact of Interest Rates in Less Developed Countries, in: ibid., pp. 577 ff.
See the arguments in favour of an alternative sequence in D. Lal: The Political Economy of Economic Liberalization, in: The World Bank Economic Review, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 273 ff.
Cf. Manfred Holthus and Rasul Shams: Anpassungspolitik und Interessengruppen in Entwicklungsländern, in: Hamburger Jahrbuch für Wirtschafts- und Gesellschaftspolitik, Vol. 32 (1987), pp. 276 ff.
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Shams, R. The World Bank's structural adjustment loans: a critique. Intereconomics 23, 208–211 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02925114
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02925114