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Restructuring Economies In Distress: Policy Reform And The World Bank; Best Practices In Trade Policy Reform

Edited by Vinod Thomas and others
Edited by Vinod Thomas, John Nash and others
Reviewed by By William Diebold, Jr.
Winter 1992/93
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Edited by Vinod Thomas and others
Oxford
1991
566 pp.
$64.95
Edited by Vinod Thomas, John Nash and others
Oxford
1991
226 pp.
$24.95

Relying heavily on analysis by its own staff, with some outside commentary, these World Bank reviews contain a great deal of interesting material. There is more satisfaction with the changes that have come about in trade policy than in the handling of the broader range of problems connected with adjustment lending, a term that does not always mean the same thing to everyone. Ernest Stern, who has been involved in the process since it started under Robert McNamara, draws up an interesting list of lessons and makes the rather surprising confession that the people at the bank "underestimated the political difficulty of protracted adjustment."

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