Can Reforming Global Institutions Help Developing Countries Share More in the Benefits from Globalization?

Solimano, Andres

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ADB;    ADVERSE EFFECTS;    AUTONOMY;    BALANCE OF PAYMENTS;    BANK LENDING;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2518
RP-ID  :  WPS2518

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Globalization could significantly expandtrade, international investment, and technological advances,but the gains from global integration have been unevenlydistributed across and within nations. Greater globalinterdependence has also brought greater macroeconomicvolatility, resulting in several serious financial crises inthe second half of the 1990s. The global matrix of BrettonWoods and United Nations institutions that developedstarting in the 1940s, formed under a different balance ofpower, in a world of fixed exchange rates and limitedcapital mobility. Since the 1960s regional financialinstitutions have emerged because of the greater autonomy ofdifferent regions and the greater financial needs ofdevelopment. The author reviews different proposals forreform of the international financial institutions andchanges in the roles of the International Monetary Fund(IMF) and the World Bank. He highlights the implications fordeveloping countries of (1) Policy conditionality. (2) Thecountercyclical role of multilaterals' lending. (3)Greater lending to middle-income than to low-incomedeveloping countries. (3) Access to liquidity at times ofcrisis. (4) Mechanisms for giving low-income countries agreater voice in IMF and World Bank decisionmaking. Theauthor streses the overlapping responsibilities of theBretton Woods and regional financial institutions and theneed to reassess the allocation of responsibilities and todevelop better coordination mechanisms between theseinstitutions. Those designing institutional reform mustconsider the corporate capabilities of each type ofinstitution. The corporate cultures of global and regionalinstitutions differ. So does the kind of knowledge theygenerate and disseminate, and so do patterns of interactionswith, and mechanisms for representation of, clientcountries.Finally, the author calls attention to the need toharmonize national and global growth-oriented policies in away that reduces volatility and promotes social equity.