Assessing Adjustment in Africa

Abstract

In 1994 the World Bank issued a report on structural adjustment, Adjustment in Africa, in which it was argued that orthodox macroeconomic management represented the road to economic recovery for the sub-Saharan countries. This article demonstrates that with its heavy emphasis upon macroeconomic policy, Bank policy shifts from structural adjustment to stabilization. Second, the statistical evidence presented by the Bank is analyzed and shown to be neither convincing nor internally consistent. Finally, an alternative approach to adjustment/stabilization is proposed and subjected to statistical testing