Economic Policies at Cross Purposes : The United States and Developing Countries

As developing countries become increasingly important in the international economy, there is an urgent need to reassess U.S. policies. This book examines the various U.S. international economic policies that affect developing countries and shows that American policies regarding trade, aid, debt, and the multilateral institutions are undertaken largely without coordination and often conflict with each other. Tracing the evolution of foreign aid, Anna Krueger explains that just after World War II American economic policies toward developing countries consisted almost entirely of foreign aid. This approach was highly successful at first, but then the ability of USAID officials to carry out their mandate eroded over time because of political constraints and conflicting objectives of the aid program. She assesses the U.S. role toward the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and argues that the United States could have been far more effective in these institutions. Krueger then addresses trade policy

concludes by calling for a firmer U.S. commitment to an open multilateral trading system, and points to the interdependence between foreign and trade policies. [Publisher's text]

532402 characters.