Not a Knowledge Bank: The Divided History of Development Economics and Development Organizations

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 627-656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Alacevich
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Development Economics ◽  
Development Theory ◽  
History Of Development ◽  
Development Organizations ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Development Policies ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

Development economics was born as a distinct disciplinary field in the aftermath of World War II, when the development of so-called Third World countries, due to the dynamics of decolonization and the Cold War, became an international priority. At the institutional level, the birth of development economics was paralleled by the reorientation of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (so-called the World Bank) from the support of European reconstruction to funding development policies worldwide. Not surprisingly, the paths of the Bank and of pioneers of development economics often crossed, and it is fair to say that the Bank and the new discipline—from the perspective of the history and sociology of social sciences—are part of the same story. Indeed, one would think that the Bank was the natural place for the breeding of development economics. This seems coherent with the image we have of the Bank today: the reign of economists. Yet, for most of the years when development theory was shaped, the Bank, although very active in development policies worldwide, was remarkably silent in the field of development economics. This paper will connect the study of economic ideas and economists in international organizations with the history of economic policies. Based on previously untapped archival sources, it will discuss how the history of development economics and of development organizations—and especially the largest among them, that is, the World Bank—proceeded separated for a long stretch of time, and how they later converged.

VISUALIZING UNCERTAINTIES, OR HOW ALBERT HIRSCHMAN AND THE WORLD BANK DISAGREED ON PROJECT APPRAISAL AND WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT THE END OF “HIGH DEVELOPMENT THEORY”

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Alacevich
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Development Economics ◽  
Development Theory ◽  
Project Design ◽  
Project Appraisal ◽  
Albert Hirschman ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S

Since its birth in 1944, the World Bank has had a strong focus on development projects. Yet, a project evaluation function was not made operational until the early 1970s. An early attempt to conceptualize project appraisal had been initiated in the 1960s by Albert Hirschman, whose undertaking raised high expectations at the Bank. Yet, Hirschman’s conclusions—published first in internal Bank reports and finally as a book in 1967—disappointed many at the Bank, primarily because they were found impractical. Hirschman attempted to offer the Bank a new Weltanschauung by transforming the Bank’s approach to project design, project management, and project appraisal. Instead, what the Bank expected from Hirschman was not a revolution, but rather an examination of the Bank’s projects and advice on how to make project design and management more measurable, more controllable, and more suitable for replication.The history of this failed collaboration gives useful insights on the unstable equilibrium between operations and evaluation within the Bank. In addition, it shows that the Bank was active in the development economics debates of the 1960s. These insights should be of interest for those development economists today who reflect on the future of the discipline and emphasize the need for a non-dogmatic approach to the study of development issues. It should also be of interest for the Bank itself, with its renewed attention to the importance of evaluation for effective development policies. The history of the practice of development economics, together with the use of archival material, can bring new perspectives that contribute to a better understanding of the evolution of this discipline.

Agency and Accountability in Multilateral Development Finance: An Agenda for Change

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-140
Author(s):  
Sophie E. Smyth
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Development Aid ◽  
World War ◽  
Development Finance ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Copenhagen Accord ◽  
The World ◽  
Aid Architecture

Recent development challenges highlight a pressing need to re-evaluate whether the post-World War II behemoths of multilateral development finance are up to the tasks being demanded of them today. The institutions that dominate the current order, the United Nations (“UN”) and the World Bank, are undergoing a crisis of confidence as the world’s development aid donors engage in an ongoing quest to find alternatives to them. This quest takes the form of setting up numerous funds narrowly tailored to finance specific, narrowly-defined needs. Examples of these funds include the Global Environment Trust Fund (GEF) and the Global Fund to Fight HIV Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis. The Climate Change Fund, proposed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Accord (and recently renamed the Green Climate Fund), is poised to follow this approach. This ad hoc special purpose fund approach lacks a coherent, unifying vision of how to meet today’s development challenges. The funds that have been created fill a need but suffer from several deficits, ranging from governance gaps and lacunae in accountability, to high transaction costs and uncertain status in the international political and legal order. These deficits generate new risks and costs for the international aid architecture. In this Article, I argue that the time has come to re-design the interrelationship between these special purpose funds and the UN and the World Bank so that these funds can operate in sync with these institutions rather than as bypasses of them.

The History of the World Bank

2002 ◽  
Vol 112 (477) ◽  
pp. F119-F135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Marcus
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

scholarly journals History of Development Economics

1993 ◽  
Vol 32 (4II) ◽  
pp. 631-638
Author(s):  
Paul Oslington
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Development Economics ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
World War ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
History Of Development ◽  
Historical Outline ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Material Progress

There are many ways we could approach the history of development economics. We could tell a story of theories replacing and supplementing each other, finishing with the current body of knowledge. Alternatively we could explore the relationship between the evolution of theory and the development experience. Another way of telling the story would be to put the evolution of theory in a wider social, political and philosophical context and explore the interactions. This historical outline will be mainly restricted to the first and simplest method but at certain points where insights from the other two methods can be gained they will be used. Searching for the roots of development economics is also problematic. One possible beginning for this historical outline would be the beginnings of peoples reflections on the evolution of societies, perhaps to the reflections embodied in early mythology. A less extreme approach would begin with the first systematic reflections on the material progress of societies. Moving closer to the approach of most histories of development economics we could begin with systematic reflections on the first industrial revolutions in Europe or finally we could begin after World War II when this sort of enquiry was applied to Asia, Africa and Latin America and began to be called development economics. The beginning chosen depends on the purpose of the history, and here because the focus is on the academic discipline of development economics the story will begin after WWII.

scholarly journals IFIs’ Conditionalities, Poverty Reduction, and Employment

2001 ◽  
Vol 40 (4II) ◽  
pp. 435-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabur Ghayur
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Financial Stability ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
World War ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
International Financial Architecture ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The World

Rising from the debris of the World War-II and also the devastations caused by the great depression of 1930s, the Bretton Woods twins—international monetary fund (IMF) and the world bank; rather the world bank group1—have over the years emerged as important players of the international financial arena. They are the major component of international financial architecture in addressing global macro and financial stability. The Bank together with the regional multi-lateral development banks (MDBs), such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the Asian and the Pacific region, is making its contribution in building necessary infrastructure needed to initiate and support the development process, the recent reduced emphasis on such projects notwithstanding.

Gunboats and Diplomacy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taylor St John
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
British Government ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
The World ◽  
The Icj ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Memories

Chapter two outlines antecedents of the ICSID Convention. The antagonisms emerging from the long history of investment dispute settlement are briefly discussed, in particular historical memories about separate courts and separate law for foreigners. Early twentieth-century efforts to replace the use of force with arbitration and later work to reframe foreign investment as a tool for development instead of a tool of imperialism provided more hopeful antecedents. Decolonization brought with it high expectations, but also disillusionment: disputes like Abadan (in which the British government sent gunboats, then asked the UN Security Council, the ICJ, and the World Bank to act, before ultimately staging a coup) made capital-importing governments wary and led many officials to believe the world needed new machinery to resolve disputes between investors and states.

Capital at work

Focaal ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 2007 (49) ◽  
pp. 129-135
Author(s):  
Istvan Adorjan
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New York ◽  
International Finance ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Oxford University Press

David Harvey, A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, 247 pp., 0-19928-327-3 (paperback).Patrick Bond, Against the global apartheid: South Africa meets the World Bank, IMF and international finance. 2nd ed. London and New York: Zed Books, 2003. 326 pp, 1-84277-393-3 (paperback).

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