Varities of stabilization experience : towards sensible macroeconomics in the third world

In this controversial and penetrating book, Lance Taylor synthesises the results of eighteen recent studies undertaken by the World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) of the United Nations University to investigate the experiences developing countries have had with stabilization programmes. He is critical of the orthodox 'neoclassical' or 'monetarist' approach of the Bretton Woods agencies-the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. By contrast, the WIDER research teams approached the problem of stabilization from 'structuralist' macroeconomic theory: different economies with different institutional relationships and varying lines of causality in their economic systems require different approaches to stabilization.

The author concludes by addressing the question of how the Fund/Bank market-oriented methodology can be modified to deal with the macroeconomic linkages beyond its control, and how stabilization can be geared towards growth. Development economists at all levels will find this critique valuable.