Development Banks

Upton examines the U.S. policy process toward the five multilateral development banks-the World Bank Group, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development-as a case study in how the United States manages its participation in multilateral institutions. The management of the U.S. role in these institutions is significant primarily because these institutions play an increasingly important role in the U.S. relationship with the developing world and because, for the most part, they are mature institutions being called upon to adapt their roles and operating styles to new financial and political realities.

The focus is on the lessons learned in developing economies and on examining which trade and industrial strategies and instruments work best in relation to manufacturing competitiveness.

Teachers, students, experts, policymakers, and citizen activists all should welcome this authoritative, systematic, single-volume sourcebook of who makes foreign policy, how it is made, and what U.S. policy has been since the 1960s. Well-known experts assess all the significant literature and research about U.S. policy in the region over the last three decades and analyze the role and procedures of foreign policymaking through regional institutions, key factors and major players in the United States, and special issues such as interventionism, human rights, democratization, and peacekeeping efforts.

The 1980s have witnessed the mass migration of developing countries and the erstwhile socialist nations to market-based economic systems. The reality is that limited finance has been a formidable barrier to these countries' growth and development. Moreover, they need to rely on their internal sources as external funds are not easily forthcoming. This book identifies four sources of internal finance--tax policies, capital markets, specialized financial institutions (such as development banks), and privatization of the public sector. It examines the conceptual foundations, operating and theoretical issues as well as strategic considerations relating to these sources. Efficient financial intermediation is seen as the key to the growth and development of these nations.

One of the key constraints to accelerated economic performance in developing countries is, in the authors' view, the absence of strong, dynamic financial systems. Many, if not most, developing countries suffer from repressed financial systems. Thus the most important step in effecting the development of capital markets is to lay a foundation of sound macroeconomic, sectorial, and regulatory policies conducive to financial sector development. This book presents a unique approach to financial sector reform composed of financial sector diagnosis, policy and institutional targeting, macroeconomic reforms, bank regulation and supervision reform, and privatization.