ABSTRACT
The World Bank’s central mission is devoted to macroeconomic policy to reduce poverty. Its loan facilities are intended to promote economic growth in developing countries and those making the transition from communism. A subsidiary objective attends to healthcare. The macroeconomic policy has greater impact than policy on healthcare on health status and its distribution in populations. On this defenders and critics of market models of development are in agreement. Nevertheless, the bank’s macroeconomic policy attracts less attention from health analysts than do its policies on healthcare (O’Keefe 1995). The bank’s explanatory account of economic development informs the exercise of its function and operates as a regulatory framework for any
country on the receiving end of its intervention. Its liberal explanatory framework encourages the extension of market principles and the integration of countries into a global capitalist network. However, there is considerable debate regarding explanation in macroeconomics, especially the use of a liberal framework which gives little weight to inequality or relative poverty (Wade 2001). There is also insufficient data that might help analysts to choose among competing explanatory schemes. Wealthy countries have a disproportionate input into global actors such as the World Bank, shaping the belief system by which they operate.
