Money Talks? The Impact of World Bank Adjustment Lending on Government Respect for Human Rights 1981-2000.

The World Bank along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) provide much needed external capital to developing countries. Thus, it is not surprising that there has been much controversy over their lending practices. Most of the discussion has focused on the fairness of the structural adjustment conditions and the effects of these conditions on economic development and the human rights practices of loan recipients (Sadasivam, 1997). In this work, the human rights consequences of World Bank structural adjustment loans (SALs) are examined in a sample of 161 significant countries of the world during the 1981-2000 period. In the first stage of the analysis, the factors affecting World Bank decisions concerning which governments receive SALs are identified. Understanding the selection criteria employed by the World Bank is an essential first step for those who wish to assess the impact of structural adjustment loans on the human rights practices of recipients. One must determine whether it was the conditions imposed by the Bank or the pre-existing situation that accounted for the human rights impacts since many of the factors important in predicting levels of respect for personal integrity rights are also important determinants of SAL receipt. This is the first two-staged analysis of the human rights effects of structural adjustment. The results of this study show that, when this endogenous relationship is accounted for, governments that receive SALs from the World Bank improve their protection of personal integrity rights the year the loan is received. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]