The World Bank under McNamara, Clausen, and Conable: Resource allocation in the World Bank

This dissertation analyzes the lending behavior of the World Bank. The World Bank has worked as the largest multilateral agency for development funding as well as it played a leading role in designing development strategies. However, few comprehensive studies of the Bank's decision-making process have been conducted. This study clarifies the characteristics of Bank decision-making regarding lending.;The dissertation investigates lending policy and the lending process using World Bank documents and hearings with Bank staff members. It presents models of Bank resource allocation among countries and sectors with reference to decision making theories. It also empirically examines the validity of these by applying correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis as well as by investigating the voting records of U.S. members on the Board of Executive Directors. The results of the analysis demonstrate that not only economic factors in borrowing countries but also administrative and political factors played a vital role in determining Bank lending to countries. Bureaucratic decision-making had a strong effect in the allocation of Bank funds among sectors. Although the direct influence of U.S. pressure on Bank lending behavior is declining, Bank lending policy in the 1980s was still strongly effected by the United States.;The World Bank has adjusted itself, by changing its lending behavior, to the transformation of the international system caused by such factors as the decline of U.S. power and the increase of the power of developing countries in the North-South relationship. However, the relationship between the World Bank and the international system is reciprocal. Therefore, this dissertation concludes with an assessment of the role of the Bank in the changing international system.