Public Enterprise Reform In Adjustment Lending

Specific divestiture dates and institutional public enterprise reform should probably not be a matter of hard conditionality for sectoral adjustment lending. One alternative is to establish institutional development projects that parallel adjustment operations. Another is to establish "primary conditions, " nonfulfillment of which would bring an operation to a halt, and "secondary conditions, " (including most institutional and public enterprise reforms), nonfulfillment of which would evoke sanctions but not end operations.

World Bank Discussion Paper No. 290. Draws on the lessons of experience of developing countries in decentralizing infrastructure and provides new empirical evidence on the quantitative and qualitative effects of decentralization. This collection of five papers highlights the lessons of the World Bank's research and experience on the linkages between infrastructure and decentralization. The paper provides: - A summary of the lessons from World Bank experience, giving a general review of the importance of the decentralization of infrastructure - A review of the institutional aspects of decentralization and their implications for policy design - An empirical assessment of the consequences of decentralization for expenditure levels and performance in infrastructure - An outline for a research agenda on decentralization in light of recent developments in the theory of the firm. - The authors conclude that some degree of decentralization will improve performance in certain areas of infrastructure such as roads and electricity.

Contract plans help clarify goals, increase managerial autonomy, and open a dialogue between management and government -- but their benefits have been oversold.

In 1980 the World Bank began structural adjustment lending to its member governments to support broad economic, institutional, and policy reforms. To examine how well this form of lending has worked, this volume brings together leading practitioners and scholars from the World Bank and other financial institutions as well as from government and academia. Their assessments, based on theoretical and practical experience, contribute to the ongoing debate about how best to bring about macroeconomic stability. Case studies of nine countries under adjustment explore how well they complied with loan conditions and how their economies performed before, during, and after adjustment.

The countries of Eastern Europe have much to gain from stabilizing their economies and integrating them with the world economy. They should make trade reforms a high priority. Policymakers there should look at the recent economic history of other nations for lessons.

Adjustment should begin with policy and institutional reforms to deal with the ultimate causes of any macroeconomic crisis a country is experiencing. Only when progress has been made in reducing inflation and fiscal and balance of payment deficits should other structural reforms begin - of the public sector, trade and competition, the financial sector, and the labor market.

How can the Bank refine its help to countries embarking on reform of public enterprises?

This paper assesses the efforts of the World Bank to improve management in the public sectors of its borrower countries. It identifies the problems that created the need for Bank involvement, reviews the steps taken and the instruments used by the Bank to help correct these problems, and assesses which of these steps have accomplished their goals, and which have not. The paper's specific objectives are threefold: (a) to evaluate the Bank's practical achievements in strengthening public agencies; (b) to offer governments and Bank staff guidence on design and implementation of reform programs; and (c) to map out the issues and areas where prescription can only be partial because knowledge is insufficient, and where more work and reflection are needed.