Despite massive investment of money and research aimed at ameliorating third-world poverty, the development strategies of the international financial institutions over the past few decades have been a profound failure. Under the tutelage of the World Bank, Africa experienced two lost decades in the 1980s and 1990s when economic growth all but disappeared. Poverty remains persistently high and inequality is rising. In Beyond the World Bank Agenda, Howard Stein argues that the controversial institution is plagued by a myopic, neoclassical mindset that wrongly focuses on individual rationality and downplays the social and political contexts that can either facilitate or impede development. Drawing on the examples of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and transitional European economies, this revolutionary volume proposes an alternative vision of institutional development with chapter-length applications to finance, state formation, and health care to provide a holistic, contextualized solution to the problems of developing nations.

About the Author
Howard Stein is professor at the University of Michigan's Center for Afroamerican and African Studies. His most recent volume is Deregulation and the Banking Crisis in Nigeria: A Comparative Study.

Reviews
"A fascinating analysis of World Bank policies and lending, focusing primarily on the theory and practice of structural adjustment.... The historical aspects of the presentation are especially interesting, as are institutional details in the chapters on financial repression and health policy." (Choice) "Every year books about the World Bank are published. Few make an impact beyond the moment, if at all. This book does more than make an impact: it sets the standard." (John Weeks, University of London)"



Book Information
ISBN 9780226214771
Author Howard Stein
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 539g
Dimensions(mm) 23mm * 16mm * 2mm