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The World Bank Group's Response
 to the Global Economic Crisis : Phase 1The global economic crisis that began in
 2008 threatened to erase years of progress in developing
 countries. In response, the World Bank Group increased
 lending to unprecedented levels. The World Bank posted a
 large increase in middle income countries (MICs), and a much
 smaller one in low income countries (LICs). The
 International Finance Corporation (IFC) focused on trade
 finance, mainly in LICs. Its new business initially fell in
 MICs, rebounding only in late fiscal 2010. The Multilateral
 Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) concentrated on
 guarantees in Eastern Europe. Analytic and advisory work
 helped inform government and private sector responses to the
 crisis. This report presents an initial real-time evaluation
 of the readiness, relevance, quality-at-entry, short-term
 results, and likely sustainability of the Bank Group
 response from the start of the crisis through fiscal 2010.
 This evaluation builds on a 2008 Independent Evaluation
 Group (IEG) assessment of Bank Group interventions during
 past crises and draws extensively on 11 country case studies
 and field visits. Given the short time since the crisis
 response started, the evaluation is geared more to raising
 flags than to presenting definitive conclusions.
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Equity and Growth in a Globalizing World : Commission on Growth and DevelopmentThe commission on growth and development was established in April 2006 in response to two insights: people do not talk about growth enough, and when they do, they speak with unearned conviction. The workshops turned out to be intense, lively affairs, lasting up to three days. It became clear that experts do not always agree, even on issues that are central to growth. But the Commission had no wish to disguise or gloss over these uncertainties and differences. And it did not want to present a false confidence in its conclusions beyond that justified by the evidence. While researchers will continue to improve people's understanding of the world, policy makers cannot wait for scholars to satisfy all of their doubts or resolve their differences. Decisions must be made with only partial knowledge of the world. One consequence is that most policy decisions, however well informed, take on the character of experiments, which yield useful information about the way the world works, even if they do not always turn out the way policy makers had hoped. It is good to recognize this fact, if only so that policy makers can be quick to spot failures and learn from mistakes. In principle, a commission on growth could have confined its attention to income per person, setting aside the question of how income is distributed. But this commission chose otherwise. It recognized that growth is not synonymous with development. To contribute significantly to social progress, growth must lift everyone's sights and improve the living standards of a broad swath of society. The Commission has no truck with the view that growth only enriches the few, leaving poverty undisturbed and social ills untouched.
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Globalization for Development : Trade, Finance, Aid, Migration, and Policy, Revised EditionGlobalization has been taking place for centuries, moving from the colonization of the inhabited parts of the world to the appearance of nations, from conquests to independent countries, from sailboats and caravans to steamboats, truck fleets and cargo planes, from trade in a few commodities to global production and distribution networks and to the present explosion of international flows of services, capital, and information. This book also helps to shatter a false dichotomy that holds that policies that favor the poor cannot be pro-market. There is an enormous set of pro-poor and pro-market policies that allow for more equal market competition among and within countries, and that ask that policy take account of externalities as much as possible. The sheer size of today's global economy is a testament to the speed of change: in 2005, world economic output total US$35 trillion an amount likely to double by 2030, assuming modest continued growth. In this book the authors provide a comprehensive introduction to key aspects of globalization trade, finance, aid, and migration, and their complex linkages with poverty and development. This book also helps to shatter a false dichotomy that holds that policies that favor the poor cannot be pro-market. There is an enormous set of pro-poor and pro-market policies that allow for more equal market competition among and within countries, and that ask that policy take account of externalities as much as possible.