It's One World Out There: The Global Consensus on Selecting the World Bank's Next President

32 Pages Posted: 30 Jul 2007

See all articles by David Wheeler

David Wheeler

Center for Global Development

Date Written: June 11, 2007

Abstract

In May 2007 CGD launched an online survey of the global development community on three issues: the selection process for the next World Bank president; criteria for rating the candidates; and actual ratings for nine candidates who had been named by the international media. Between May 22 and May 31, CGD received nearly 700 responses from people whose characteristics reflect the diversity of the international development community. Survey participants represent 71 nations; all world regions; high-, middle- and low-income countries; a variety of professional affiliations; and all adult age groups. About 30% of respondents are women.

Although the participants are diverse, their responses indicate striking unity on all three survey issues. First, both U.S. and non-U.S. participants reject the traditional selection prerogative of the U.S. by large margins, with equally strong support for an open, transparent, competitive selection process. Second, participants exhibit uniformity in the relative importance they ascribe to CGD's five proposed criteria for selecting candidates. Most respondents assign the highest priorities to management effectiveness and international organization experience, followed in order by knowledge of development, banking/finance experience and political/diplomatic experience. Third, the participants exhibit uniformity in rating the nine candidates. Our survey suggests that despite their diversity, survey participants from the U.S., high-, medium- and low-income countries and the World Bank display striking uniformity in their preference for an open, competitive selection process, their weighting of selection criteria, and their assessment of potential candidates for president of the World Bank.

Keywords: World Bank, president, selection, international, finance, development

JEL Classification: F3, F33

Suggested Citation

Wheeler, David, It's One World Out There: The Global Consensus on Selecting the World Bank's Next President (June 11, 2007). Center for Global Development Working Paper No. 123, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1003245 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1003245

David Wheeler (Contact Author)

Center for Global Development ( email )

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