Stabilization and Structural Adjustment: Macroeconomic Frameworks for Analysing the Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa

The past decade has been disastrous for Africa. Different solutions have been proposed for this crisis, but the stabilization and structural adjustment packages of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have had the greatest influence. Characteristically these packages are designed to diminish the role of the state and enhance that of the market but a whole range of strategies have been pursued to achieve these ends. On different occasions demand or supply side measures have been favoured and policies have been adopted with a view to the short, middle or long term. Given that much of the literature in this area is descriptive and orientated around case studies it is difficult to disentangle the key features of the debate. Stabilization and Structural Adjustment offers clarification by looking beyond individual programmes to assess the relevance of the macroeconomic theory and models that underlie them.