The Washington Consensus : Assessing A Damaged Brand

Abstract

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Understanding the Income and Efficiency Gap in Latin America and the Caribbean

“…Equity and volatility need to be taken into account in the formulation of growth strategies, providing an empirical basis for the Birdsall, de la Torre, and Caicedo (2010) notion of an incomplete agenda for growth in LAC in the past and suggesting that shared prosperity is also supportive of income convergence.…”

Lessons from International Experience in Designing the Development Bank of Nigeria

“…While intense efforts were made by Latin American countries to implement the Washington Consensus framework, outcomes in the form of increased economic growth were disappointing. GDP growth averaged only 3 percent during the 1990s, and per capita income in Latin America has continued to diverge from levels in developed countries, such as the United States (Birdsall et al 2010). On the other hand, some East Asian countries that operated outside of the Washington Consensus framework significantly narrowed their per capita GDP gap with the United States, experiencing economic growth at twice the rate of Latin America (World Bank, 2004).…”

“…Examples of such directed credit programs are the schemes managed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, where ultimate responsibility for loan approval resides with the central bank rather than the participating private banks. 67 See de la andBirdsall et al (2010) for more discussion.…”

State capability and prospects for close co-ordination: Considerations for industrial policy in Africa

“…Although the Washington Consensus held in policy circles through the 1990s (Birdsall et al 2010), the 1980s also saw increasing research attention to 'bringing the state back in' (Evans et al 1985). In Governing the Market, Wade (1990) presented a direct challenge to the neoclassical approach to development and a defense of industrial policy.…”