Anyone who was unaware of the threat that volatility poses to developing countries will have a new appreciation of the problem in the wake of the Great Global Credit Crisis. And there is no better place to go than this for an understanding of what the multilateral financial institutions can do to help them cope.
—Barry Eichengreen, George C. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science, University of California–Berkeley
This book combines rigorous academic analysis on the causes and consequences of vulnerability and volatility with the policy insights from an insider who has first-hand experience dealing with these issues. It will be a useful reference for students and researchers interested in development issues, as well as for policymakers and experts in the multilateral development banks.
—Ricardo Haussman, Director of the Center for International Development, Harvard University
As the drafts of this book were coming together in early 2008, Guillermo Perry argued that developing countries remained highly vulnerable to external risks such as commodity price declines, capital flow reversals, and natural disasters. The economic crisis that has since ensued could not have proved his analysis more true: rather than fall into complacency as the short-term demand for traditional loans increases, multilateral development banks (MDBs) should move beyond lending to provide innovative risk-management tools for developing countries to manage volatility and create long-term stability.
