A Third World perspective on industrial decentralization: The World Bank Study on Seoul

Over the past five years the World Bank has been engaged in an extensive investigation of the implementation of policies designed to recast the urban system of South Korea and, more especially, to constrain the expansion of the capital city, Seoul. The South Korean situation furnishes an example of an active employment decentralization policy pursued in a middle‐income developing country. The task of the paper is to synthesize the extant research material on Seoul, chronicling the unfolding nature of policy intervention, the directions of industrial policy in South Korea and suggesting the broader implications for decentralization planning in South Africa.     

票据融资业务的风险与防范

票据融资业务风险将长期存在于票据融资业务的发展过程中,如何在发展票据业务的同时行之有效地防范风险是本文阐述的主题。作者首先对有代表性的票据融资业务风险进行了深入分析,并据此提出了防范票据融资业务风险的措施。     

对世界银行2005年购买力平价结果及问题分析

世界银行2008年2月底发布了包括中国在内的146个国家和地区2005年国际比较项目(ICP)最终结果报告,引起了国内外各方面的普遍关注。本文以世界银行发布的最终数据为基础,比较了世界各国价格水平、基于购买力平价(PPP)的GDP规模和人均GDP等指标,剖析了与以前公布的PPP结果不同的原因。分析表明,2005年PPP比较结果要比以前推算的结果更合理些,但仍存在着一些数据质量问题,应引起注意,要正确理解和使用PPP数据。     

The World Bank and infrastructure development in developing countries∗

The history of the World Bank, which encompasses The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), The International Development Association (IDA) and The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is very briefly traced. The operation of these three banking organizations is described and then compared in a useful summary table, in respect of objectives, types of activities, current scope of activities, terms of lending, sources of funds, etc. At the operational level the typical project cycle, consisting of six phases, is briefly described.     

The decentralization debate: The World Bank study on Sao Paulo

The World Bank has increasingly been drawn into controversies surrounding policies for restraining the growth of major urban centres and/or fostering the expansion of secondary cities in the developing world. To provide a sounder basis for policy making the Bank has launched several research programmes to understand the forces involved in urban growth across all cities in a region and the policies influencing this process. The present paper provides a synthesis of writings which have emanated from the research undertaken in Sao Paulo, Brazil, offering a comparative perspective on the decentralization debates currently raging in South Africa.     

A note on takeovers and the market value rule

Summary It was shown that a popular model of capital market equilibrium implies that firm share demand curves are downward sloping. From this it was inferred that the potential goal divergence between management and shareholders is not necessarily removed by the threat of takeovers. Thus, nothing short of transforming management into shareholders via the device of share options may be effective in ensuring compatible financial criteria.     

The World Bank and agricultural development: Food production and rural poverty

Over the past decade, the World Bank has become the leading international institution for development financing and for elaborating new development strategies. This has involved a major shift in lending toward agriculture and rural development. Explanations for the change range from more progressive expertise within the Bank to the shock of the 1972-74 food crisis and renewed penetration of Third World agriculture by capitalist agribusiness. Discriminating among these perspectives requires attention to the core issue of the relationship between increasing food production and reducing rural poverty. The issue is irreducibly political, and the Bank's record is less encouraging than the reformist rhetoric.