Putting Development First: The Importance of Policy Space in the WTO and International Financial Institutions

by Kevin P. Gallagher (Editor)

Some of the world's most prominent development thinkers address the following question in this to what extent are the rules and economic forces that govern the global economy shrinking the 'policy space' that developing countries can draw from in order to construct policies to raise the standards of living of their people? They then analyse the possibly considerable room for manoeuvre that developing countries still have at their disposal despite global macro-economic realities, IMF/World Bank policies, and the trade rules regime of the World Trade Organization. Finally, the authors suggest actual policies that could be put in place in order to preserve existing spaces for development and to expand the tools developing countries can deploy.

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 7, 2005

About the author

Kevin P. Gallagher is a professor of international relations at Boston University and senior researcher at the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University. He has a monthly column in the Guardian (UK) and is also a poet. He lives with his wife and two children in Newton, MA.