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

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."