"It would be a demotion in the Bank to be called an economist [...] and death for a career." – Irving S. Friedman, Economic Adviser to the President of the World Bank, 1964–1970

Development Brokers: The World Bank, Economic Expertise, and the Reinvention of Global Economic Governance in the 1960s

My doctoral dissertation offers a revisionist analysis of the political economy of the World Bank in the 1960s, during the so-called Development Decade. By focusing on the construction of economic expertise at the Bank, the thesis shows how the organization solidified its role as a foundational institution of the world economy with a noteworthy influence on the theory and practice of international development. Contrary to prevailing understandings of the World Bank as an agent of economic orthodoxy and later as an engine of the neoliberal agenda, my research demonstrates that the organization was much more open to considering alternative and heterodox proposals, usually associated with other international agencies such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and Caribbean (ECLAC or CEPAL), and later the New International Economic Order agenda. I analyze a number of these proposals – international buffer stock facilities, commodity price stabilization at artificially augmented levels, advocacy for larger capital requirements of the developing world, and multilateral coordination of financial aid programs – together with their institutional paths and the agency of their proponents at the World Bank like Irving S. Friedman, Andrew M. Kamarck and Dragoslav Avramović.

Relying on newly declassified and previously untapped archival documents and oral history transcripts, my research revisits the complex trajectory of development institutions, economic ideas and specific policy proposals. It shows how the World Bank contributed to the reinvention of global economic governance in the 1960s and adds to our understanding of paths (not) taken during the first Development Decade.

ARCHIVES CONSULTED FOR MY RESEARCH PROJECT:

American Heritage Center (Laramie, Wyoming, USA)

Bank of France (Paris, France)

Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts, University of Oxford (Oxford, UK)

Caltech Archives and Special Collections (Pasadena, California, USA)

Columbia University Archives (New York City, New York, USA)

Economists’ Papers Archive (Durham, North Carolina, USA)

Harvard University Archives (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA)

Hoover Institution Library &  Archives (Stanford, California, USA)

IMF Archives (Washington, D.C., USA)

International Coffee Organization (London, UK)

JFK Presidential Library (Boston, Massachusetts, USA)

LBJ Presidential Library (Austin, Texas, USA)

Library of Congress (Washington, D.C., USA)

United Nations Archives (New York City, New York, USA)

US National Archives (College Park, Maryland, USA)

World Bank Group Archives (Washington, D.C., USA)