'Openness' and the 'Market Friendly' approach to development: learning the right lessons from development experience

Abstract Two principal analytical and practical policy issues in economic development today are: a) the degree and kind of openness to the world economy a developing country should seek; b) what should the government do, or not do, in order to promote fast economic and industrial development. These questions are controversial and have therefore been the subject of an important debate, not least in the pages of this Journal. In view of its direct policy involvement in developing countries around the globe, the World Bank has been a major participant in this debate.