Do World Bank and IMF Policies Work [Hardcover]

The term 'structural adjustment' has been associated with rioting as angry and hungry masses protest food price increases due to subsidy cuts or due to other structural adjustment conditions prescribed by the IMF and the World Bank. Structural adjustment, and the neo-liberal paradigm that underlies it, is now the dominant economics paradigm practised by developing countries. The main purpose of the book is to rely on evidence and to go beyond rhetoric, ideology and anecdotes in assessing structural adjustment in Pakistan and the developing world more generally to examine how reform can be combined with pragmatism and social justice.Introduction PART I: TESTING HYPOTHESES Structural Adjustment Aid, Debt and Growth Devaluation and the Balance of Trade Financial Sector Reform Comparative Privatisation Experience: Employee and Private Ownership Structural Adjustment, Industrialization and Export Promotion PART II: ASSESSING IMPACT Structural Adjustment, Labour and the Poor Gender and Structural Adjustment Structural Adjustment and Health Trade Liberalisation and the Environment Structural Adjustment and Food Security Summary and Conclusion Index

'This book presents a timely analysis, at once empirical, comprehensive and balanced, of the impact of structural adjustment policies in Pakistan. It is very important as the juggernaut of structural adjustment rolls across lagging countries, that we keep improving our empirical understanding of what this is doing to economic growth, industrialization, indigenous capital formation, and human development. Dr. Khan's volume will serve as an indispensable resource for all students of the Pakistani economy.' - M.Shahid Alam, Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Northeastern University, Boston

Shahrukh Rafi Khan is Executive Director of Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad, Pakistan.