The world is changing and for the first time a person who is not American or European will be chief economist of the World Bank. Justin Lin from Peking University was trained at the University of Chicago. He has specialized in development research work on China. He was the founding director of the China enter for Economic Research at Peking University. Most of his development work has focused on agriculture in China but from what I have seen he seems to be a careful and even-handed researcher. He is certainly not a part of the Washington consensus and has argued that the transition of China was based on a gradual or evolutionary approach.
Some of the chief economists for the World Bank have included, Anne Kruger, Lawrence Summers and Josephs Stiglitz. This is both a prestigious and important position in global financial markets and development; albeit the World Bank has more recently had a mixed role on the world stage. With the strong growth in emerging market countries, the mission of the World Bank has been less clear.
Lin as chief economics may have a significant impact on the direction of the World Bank, yet the impact will not be clear. Even Nobel Prize winners have not been able to truly influence the direction of the Bank. The frustrations of Joe Stiglitz are a testimony to the entrenched bureaucracy.
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