US World Bank nominee under fire over book

From Robin Harding of the FT 

Jim Yong Kim, the US nominee to head the World Bank, is coming under fire over a book he co-authored that criticises “neoliberalism” and “corporate-led economic growth”, arguing that in many cases they had made the middle classes and the poor in developing countries worse off.

Some economists are arguing thatDying for Growth, jointly edited by Dr Kim and published in 2000, puts too great a focus on health policy over broader economic growth.

“Dr Kim would be the first World Bank president ever who seems to be anti-growth,” said William Easterly, professor of economics at New York University. “Even the severest of World Bank critics like me think that economic growth is what we want.”

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2 thoughts on “US World Bank nominee under fire over book

  1. Also, let us look at the performance track record of the standard economic gurus of growth; including those in the Bretton Woods Instituions.

    These gurus, with the exception of a few outliers who were mocked, seemed to have been fairly clueless and unable to anticipate major global and national economic developments and events; positive or negative. Of course ex-post these gurus were very erudite and had all the answers.

    So perhaps at least this time around there may be hope that at least some critical sectors such as health may get enough attention so as to make a difference while avoiding situations such as HIPC and financial market meltdowns.

  2. Bill Easterly quoted selectively from a book co-authored by Jim Kim a decade ago. Bill’s friends at the FT picked it up. A more complete reading of the book would find its scholarship not dissimilar from Professor Easterly’s. As a compilation of diverse views, including many shared by CSOs, the book stands as a contribution in the same vein as “The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good”

    There are not mobs with pitchforks in the street,

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