Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics

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This series provides the best papers from the Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics, a forum begun in 1989 for discussion and debate of important policy issues facing developing countries. The conferences emphasize the contribution that empirical economic research can make to understanding development processes and to formulating sound development policies. Conference papers are written by researchers in and outside the World Bank. The review process, a mix of internal and external review, is overseen by an Advisory Committee for the series. This series is produced by the World Bank's Development Economics Vice Presidency.

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  • Publication
    Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics Global 2007 : Rethinking Infrastructure for Development
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007) Bourguignon, François; Pleskovic, Boris
    The Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) is one of the best-known conferences for the presentation and discussion of new knowledge on development. It is an opportunity for many of the world's finest development thinkers to present their ideas. The 2007 ABCDE -- held in Tokyo on May 29-30, 2006, and cosponsored by the Government of Japan -- was devoted to "Rethinking Infrastructure for Development." The conference opened with remarks by Sadakazu Tanigaki, Japan's Minister of Finance, and Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank. Their remarks were followed by keynote addresses by Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank; Sadako Ogata, President of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA); and Joseph Stiglitz, University Professor at Columbia University. Six papers were presented addressing the issues of infrastructure for growth, sustainable development and infrastructure, rural infrastructure and agricultural development, and infrastructure and regional cooperation. François Bourguignon, Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank, delivered closing remarks.
  • Publication
    Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics--Regional 2007 : Beyond Transition
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007) Bourguignon, François; Pleskovic, Boris
    This annual conference is a global gathering of the world's leading scholars and practitioners. Among the attendees are participants from developing countries, think tanks, NGOs, and international institutions. The papers included in this book concern issues such as: inequality and growth in transition; trade liberalization, inequality and poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean; can economic policy overcome geographic disadvantage in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States; and patterns of spatial convergence and divergence in India and China.
  • Publication
    Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics--Europe 2006 : Securing Development in an Unstable World
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006) Bourguignon, François; Pleskovic, Boris; van der Gaag, Jacques
    The Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) is one of the world's best-known series of conferences for the presentation and discussion of new knowledge on development. It is an opportunity for many of the world's finest development thinkers to present their ideas. In 1999, in recognition of Europe's pivotal role in the provision of development assistance and to bring the World Bank's research on development into close contact with European perspectives, the World Bank created a distinctively European platform for debate on development issues. The seventh Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics in Europe was held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, May 23-24, 2005. The conference was co-organized by the Government of the Netherlands. The theme of the conference was "Securing Development in an Unstable World." The conference opened with remarks by Jean-François Rischard, the World Bank's Vice President for Europe, and Agnes van Ardenne-van der Hoeven, Minister for Development Cooperation, the Netherlands. Their remarks were followed by keynote addresses by François Bourguignon, Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank; Hisashi Owada, Judge, International Court of Justice, and former Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Japan; Gerrit Zalm, Minister of Finance, the Netherlands; and Ernesto Zedillo, former President of Mexico, and Director, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, Yale University. Three papers-on macroeconomic vulnerability; vulnerability: a micro perspective; and health risks-were then presented.
  • Publication
    Annual World Bank Conference On Development Economics 2006 : Growth and Integration
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006) Bourguignon, François; Pleskovic, Boris
    The Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) brings together the world s leading scholars and development practitioners for a lively debate on state-of-the-art thinking in development policy and the implications for the global economy. The 17th conference was held in Dakar, Senegal, on January 27, 2005. The theme of the conference was growth and integration, which was divided into five topics: growth and integration, financial reforms, economic development, trade and development, and investment climate.
  • Publication
    Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics--Europe 2005 : Are We on Track to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals?
    (Washington, DC: World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2005) Bourguignon, François; Pleskovic, Boris; Sapir, André; Bourguignon, François; Pleskovic, Boris; Sapir, André
    This Sixth Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics, one of the world's best-known series of conferences, aims at the presentation, and discussion of new knowledge on development. The theme of the conference was "Doha, Monterrey, and Johannesburg: Are We on Track to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)?" The conference provides a forum for the world's leading development thinkers to share new knowledge, and ideas. This Conference was designed to look at how four flows (flows of people, capital, aid, and trade) link developed and developing countries. Discussions show not only where some of the main opportunities are in each of these four areas, but also where the main blockages are, and what the real risks are-both when flows accelerate, and when flows dry up. Notably, it was argued that developed countries should have the courage to push globalization further: Europe, like the United States, is protectionist, and as long as it stays that way, there can be no real free trade on the global level. It was proposed a political counterpart to what exists on the economic level be created, i.e., to replace the G-8 of rich countries, with a G-8 of local and regional groups. Such a G-8 would grant a legitimate place to the South, and could serve as a forum for consultation among various continental structures - African Union, Mercosur, the European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the North American Free Trade Agreement. Such a G-8 would not only contribute to improved relations between various parties, but would also encourage various regions to intensify their cooperation. Similarly, the creation within the United Nations of an Economic, Social, and Environmental Security Council was proposed, which would form the new framework for globalization, thus monitor implementation of conclusions from large conferences, and, coordinate the major international institutions such as the World Trade Organization, International Labor Organization, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank. Redistribution through official development assistance is extremely limited, and it is cancelled out by rich countries' restrictions that limit poor countries' market access. It is argued that the objective of aid is not to redistribute income today, in order to increase immediate consumption; the objective is to transfer growth potential from rich countries to poor countries. Trade flows, capital flows, and migration flows could also be seen as influencing the growth potential of the poorest countries. Maximizing this potential is essential for a future unambiguous, improvement in the world distribution of income. Furthermore, an alternative way forward for the Doha Round is presented, based on the principles of social justice and economic analysis. The World Trade Organization (WTO) needs to establish a source of impartial, and publicly available analysis of the effects of various initiatives on different countries.
  • Publication
    Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics 2004 : Accelerating Development
    (Washington, DC: World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2004) Bourguignon, François; Pleskovic, Boris; Bourguignon, François; Pleskovic, Boris
    Presenting the proceedings of the May 2003 World Bank Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE), the volume imparts new research findings and discussions on key policy issues related to poverty reduction by eminent scholars and practitioners from around the world. Topics include Fostering Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Growth; Challenges of Development in Lagging Regions; Participation, Inclusion and Results and Scaling Up and Evaluation. Contributors to the volume include, Nicholas Stern, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank; Azim Hasham Premji, Chairman of Bangalore's Wipro Corporation; Francois Bourguignon of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Possiy, France; Partha Dasgupta of Cambridge University; Justin Lin of Hong Kong University; Rakesh Mohan, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India; Jean Philippe Platteau of the University of Namur, Belgium; Karen Polenske of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; T. N. Srinivasan, of Yale University; and Anthony Venables of the London School of Economics.
  • Publication
    Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics 2003 : The New Reform Agenda
    (Washington, DC: World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2003) Pleskovic, Boris; Stern, Nicholas; Pleskovic, Boris; Stern, Nicholas
    The Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics seeks to expand the flow of ideas among development policy researchers, academics, and practitioners from around the world. It is a premier forum for World Bank and other experts to exchange ideas, challenge one another's findings, and expand theoretical and practical knowledge of development. Each year the topics selected for the conference represent new matters of concern or areas that will benefit from a review of what we know and from the identification of what still needs to be explored and expanded. This year's conference, held at the World Bank on April 29-30, 2002, addressed four themes: trade and poverty, Africa's future in terms of industrial and/or agricultural development, education and empowerment, and investment climate and productivity, with Andrew Berg and Anne Krueger, Paul Collier, Simeon Djankov, Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-De-Silanes, and Andrei Schleifer, Ravi Kanbur, Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff, L. Alan Winters, and Adrian Wood. World Bank President James D. wolfensohn, Chief Economist Nicholas Stern, and John B. Taylor also addressed the conference.
  • Publication
    Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics 2001/2002
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002) Pleskovic, Boris; Stern, Nicholas; Pleskovic, Boris; Stern, Nicholas
    The Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics is a forum for discussion, and debate of important policy issues facing developing countries. This report for 2001-2002 focuses on two main themes, based on papers presented, and discussions that followed: 1) globalization and inequality, drawing on historical trends, through the human capital nexus, and the role of foreign trade and investment, to the geographic and international inequalities of globalization, and how the impact of technological change affected the developing world; and, 2) health and development, focused on the role of nongovernmental organizations in the provision of health care, with a special look at the patent policy proposal for global diseases. Health, income, and economic development are emphasized, so as to highlight the world inequality, and the growing concerns on the rising longevity.
  • Publication
    Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics 2000
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001-07) Pleskovic, Boris; Stern, Nicholas; Pleskovic, Boris; Stern, Nicholas
    These are the proceedings of the Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics, which gathers the global perspective of scholars, and practitioners of development policy from academic life, government, and the private sector. The selected topics seek to include new areas of concern, and current research, as well as areas believed to benefit from exposure to recent knowledge, and experience. This year's conference focused on new development thinking, crises and recovery, corporate governance and restructuring, and, social security, public and private savings. The opening address outlines challenges for development, that include the intransigence of poverty in Africa, and ways to establish public-private partnerships at the country, and global levels, while the keynote address identifies equilibrium, and change as the focus of development economics: long-term sustainable growth requires development of a consensus behind the reform policies. Discussions varied from crises and recovery, through perspectives on the recent history of transition economies, to arguments on the possibilities of poverty reduction on a grand scale. Other topics include the exploration of development strategies, revision of the role of aid in providing finance, changing policies, and knowledge transfer, and, how to coordinate development problems.
  • Publication
    Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics 1999
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2000) Pleskovic, Boris; Stiglitz, Joseph E.; Pleskovic, Boris; Stiglitz, Joseph E.
    The 1999 Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics, the eleventh anniversary, was held at the Bank on April 28-30, 1999. The discussions focused on three trends of development: 1) the emerging international financial architecture; 2) challenges to social development; and 3) lessons from a decade of transition. Twelve papers were presented on a variety of topics including corporate governance, short-term capital flows, and the relationships between crime, violence, and inequitable development. The keynote addresses by Noble Laureate Kenneth Arrow, Secretary of the US Treasury Lawrence Summers, and Joseph E. Stiglitz, senior vice president, Development Economics and chief economist at the World Bank and former chair of the US Council of Economic Advisors, broach many of the topics that were central to the conference. They examine technological knowledge and innovation and global integration and look back at the arduous process of transition in the former Soviet Union.