Some Thoughts on the Washington Consensus and Subsequent Global Development Experience

摘要

In 1989, policymakers around the world were struggling to come to grips with the debt crisis and slow growth that had plagued developing economies during much of the 1980s, especially nations in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. The International Institute of Economics (now the Peterson Institute of International Economics) held a conference discussing the economic and debt situation, mostly focused on Latin American countries. The conference was run by John Williamson (who died in April 2021), a senior fellow at the institute who specialized in topics related to international capital flows, exchange rates, and development. To focus the conference discussion, Williamson (1990) wrote a background paper that began: "No statement about how to deal with the debt crisis in Latin America would be complete without a call for the debtors to fulfill their part of the proposed bargain by 'setting their houses in order,' 'undertaking policy reforms,' or 'submitting to strong conditionality.' The question posed in this paper is what such phrases mean, and especially what they are generally interpreted as meaning in Washington."