The Political Economy of the World Bank The Early Years [Hardcover]

The Political Economy of the World Bank: The Early Yearsis a fascinating study of economic history. This text describes perhaps what is the most crucial time for development economics: the birth of the third world, the creation of development economics as a discipline, and the establishment of the World Bank's leading role in development.

Using previously unavailable archival material, Michele Alacevich takes a close look at the years during which the International Bank for Reconstruction and Developmentnow known as the World Bank turned its attention from reconstruction to development, having been upstaged by the Marshall Plan.He describes the Currie Mission to Colombia (19491954), the World Bank's first general survey mission in a developing nation. With the Currie Mission as a starting point and a case study, Alacevich analyzes the complexities of the Bank's first steps toward economic and social development in poorer nations, and helps the reader understand some foundational questions about development that are still of great relevance today.

The Political Economy of the World Bank: The Early Yearsis essential reading for anyone interested in the economic history of international development as a lens for better understanding current development issues.

Overall, this is a very well-written and compelling piece of research. ...It illuminates how the choice between project and programme financing matured within the Bank, how personal characteristics of the key players (in particular, Lauchlin Currie versus Albert Hirschman) affected policies and outcomes, and, by way of example, the creation of the field now known as Development Economics. As such, Alacevich's research is not only important and interesting for students of the World Bank itself, but for those of development economics more broadly. Alacevich offers a fascinating account of the evolution of the World Bank's loan operations in its early years, and of the theolCs