Global Economic Governance and the Development Practices of the Multilateral Development Banks

Book excerpt: As pillars of the post-1945 international economic system the Regional and Sub-Regional Development Banks (RSDBs) have long been considered mini-World Banks, reiterating the policy approach of the largest official multilateral development lender in the world. The main objective of the collection is to identify what role the RSDBs play in global economic governance and why. This edited collection draws together cutting edge original research on these understudied institutions. In the burgeoning sub-field of global economic governance as well as the broader study of international organisations (IOs), too often the focus remains on the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Second-order IOs, such as the RSDBs, receive much less attention despite their longevity and regional importance. This volume corrects this oversight by bringing together methodologically diverse research on the RSDBs that interrogates the role and impact of these organisations in global economic governance. The book investigates: the African Development Bank (AfDB); the Asian Development Bank (AsDB); the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and select sub-regional development banks in comparison to the World Bank Group. This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of IPE, IR and Development Studies.