The records in this series are the official project files maintained by the office of the Research Administrator and predecessor units for research projects funded wholly or in part from the Research Support Budget (RSB). Research proposals were received from the Regions, Sectors, and from DEC or earlier Economics and Research Staff (ERS) units. Research proposals dealt with development policy and planning, finance and trade, capital markets, rural development, industry, infrastructure, poverty and socialwelfare, labor markets, education, environmentally sustainable development including environmental economics, energy, agriculture and natural resources, private sector development, regional development, and population.

The series is arranged in five parts, the first four of which cover overlapping time periods from 1981 to 2000. The fifth segment consists of a single research project file for the 1995-1997 period maintained by a project manager. The bulk of the files in this series include: a project proposal; memoranda to project proposal reviewers for projects that exceeded the cost ceiling for approval by the Research Administrator, reviewers' evaluations of the project proposal; the project manager's response to the reviewers' evaluations; Research Advisory Staff (RAD) memoranda to members of the REPAC [Research Projects Approval Committee] or the Research Committee (RC) subcommittee selected to review the proposal; comments from subcommittee members; the project manager's response to the subcommittee's comments; minutes of the REPAC or RC meeting at which the proposal was discussed; intra-RAD memoranda discussing the project; RAD's memorandum to the project manager conveying approval and funding of the project; Back-to-Office Reports (BTOs) from missions connected to the project; correspondence between the project supervisor and the Research Administrator that may include requests for an extension of the project completion date or for additional funds; budget tracking reports; a project completion report on a standardized form; and copies of the publications and papers that constituted the output from the project. Not all of the files contain completion reports. Some files include status reports and comments on the proposal from Regional organizations.

Among the earlier files in the series are four files for research projects associated with the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) (RPO file nos. 673-22, 673-38, 674-17, and 674-19). Some of the files in the series that predate 1990 relate not tospecific research projects but to administrative matters relating to research: authorizations for the transfer of funds from the RSB (RPO 671-99); costs for the World Bank Economic Review (RPO 673-570), the Research Observer (RPO 673-61), and the World Bank Research News (RPO 673-71); RAD costs for the First Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics (RPO 674-82); and routine authorizations for the transfer of funds from the RSB for consultants, project proposal reviewers, etc. (RPO 671-99). The Research Policy Council (RPC) approved funding for the three previously mentioned publications.

Beginning in 1991; the records within each project file were divided into five categories, each with a separate tab: proposal; reviews; correspondence; budget; and completion. Filed under the proposal tab is the formal project proposal sent to RAD and correspondence between the RAD staff and the project manager. Under the review tab are RAD's correspondences with referees who agreed to comment on the proposal, the referees' comments, and the project manager's responses to RAD regarding issued raised by the referees. The items under the 'correspondence tab include a wide range of records: intra-RAD memoranda regarding a project proposal; reports from the Research Committee subcommittee that reviewed the project proposal; notices that the project manager and/or the managing unit had changed; replies from the manager to specific questions from RAD staff; requests for deadline extensions; BTOs from missions connected to the project; copies of book reviews of publications resulting from a research project; and handwritten notes of RAD staff. Correspondence under the budget tab generally includes a copy of the RAD memorandum to the project manager indicating the proposal had been approved and explaining how the budget should be managed. In addition, there may be requests from the project manager for additional funds or for an extension of the completion date, and a copy of RAD's instructions as to how to handleproject funds remaining at the end of the fiscal year. Not all of the files for 1991 and later contain a project completion report under the completion tab. Some files contain copies of publications resulting from the research output or a RAD memorandum requesting an overdue project completion report under this tab. A small number of the project files created after 1991 are for funding conferences and workshops, expenses connected with the Bank's Visiting Research Fellows program, and the production of avideo of the slide presentation used as the keynote to a conference. The file for Symposium/Workshop on Accelerating Native Forest Regeneration on Degraded Tropical Lands (RPO 677-67) contains only the materials distributed to workshop attendees and a note indicating that no file for the project could be found.

Project Manager John Nash's file (fifth part of series) for the research project Regulating Technology Transfer: Impact on Technical Change, Productivity and Incomes covers the years 1995-1997 andincludes a request for RSB funding for the project; a response to the review of the research project; expense/budget reports for the project; Terms of Reference for missions connected to the project; a copy of a consultants BTO report for December 1995 visits to Malawi, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Ghana in connection with project; and Nash's correspondence with consultants associated with the project. The official file for this research project is also in this series.

Project evaluation reports are not in the files in this series, but, in most cases, the project completion report, when present in the file, has been annotated to indicate that the evaluation was completed.

Most of the correspondence in this series covers the period when Balassa reported both to the Vice President, Development Policy Staff (VPD, later Vice President, Economics and Research [VPERS)] and to the Director of the Development Research Center (DRC), and, after the 1987 Reorganization, the Vice President, Development Economics and Chief Economist (DECVP). He also served during this period as Chairman of the Development Policy Staff Trade Advisory Committee. The files are loosely organized around Balassa's projects while serving as consultant to the Bank during this period.

Included are Balassa's completion reports for some of the projects he personally carried out, his comments on proposals and research projects conducted by others in the Bank, and correspondence with the Research Projects Approval Committee (REPAC) and the head of the Research Administration Unit in VPERS. Some files contain background materials, including statistical data, used in Balassa's research. Specific documents include: Terms of Reference (TOR) for a May-June 1983 mission to Tunisia led by Balassa that constituted the first phase of a study on employment creation; his TOR and Back-to-Office (BTO) Report for a January 1985 Industrial Policy Mission he led to Tunisia; and his report on his coordination of a Latin American development strategy study (introduced by David Rockefeller) while on leave from Johns Hopkins University. Correspondence, including a BTO Report, for a mission to Venezuela Balassa led from January to October 1987 to hold discussions with the Venezuelan government on the economy and possible resumption of Bank lending is also part of the series.

Also included in the series are copies of talking points and papers Belassa prepared at the request of high-level Bank officials and correspondence with DECVP. Belassa's handwritten notes and drafts can be found throughout the series.

The Policy Planning and Program Review Department staff (Pedro-Pablo Kuczynski, Frank Vibert, and Shahid J. Burki) served as the secretariat for the Policy Review Committee (PRC). This series contains the secretariat's set of policy papers and the notices of meetings and minutes of staff review meetings and of Policy Review Committee meetings at which the policy papers were discussed. The policy papers, which were drafted by various units throughout the Bank, were distributed for review at the PRC stafflevel or by the Policy Review Committee as a whole or were widely distributed throughout the Bank for comment or for information purposes prior to consideration by the Executive Directors. The files contain the various versions of a paper as it proceeded through the review process. The policy papers cover a broad range of subjects: sector issues, project costs overruns, the lending policies and practices of IDA, the World Bank's approach to interest rates and credit allocation issues, and the establishmentof the Third Window.

The Bank-wide Social and Economic Statistics Committee (SESC) was established in 1987 and was responsible for advising the Senior Vice President, Policy, Planning and Research (SVPPR) on policies of the Bank's social and economic statistical services. It served as a Bank-wide forum for ensuring that the interests of the Bank's socio-economic data collectors, managers, and users were adequately considered. The Committee met at roughly quarterly intervals; the Chief Economist (DECVP) was chair and Ramesh Chander, Statistical Adviser (DECVP), was ex-officio Secretary.

This series contains a small collection of SESC records that D.C. Rao maintained while he was Director of the Risk Management and Financial Policy Department (FRS) and a member of SESC. This set of the Committee's records includes lists of members; Terms of Reference; minutes of the first meeting held on September 8, 1987; an August 11, 1988 note from Stanley Fischer summarizing the major issues regarding the Bank Economic and Social Database (BESD) prior to a discussion of BESD at a SESC meeting; and a copy of the 1987 questionnaire for Short Term, Long Term and Credit Worthiness Surveys.

While Rao was neither the Chair nor the Secretary for this Committee, there are no known records related to the SESC found in the custody of the World Bank Group Archives. Therefore, this set of records is retained permanently.

The correspondence in this series documents Stanley Fischer's wide range of responsibilities as DECVP. Fischer did not officially assume the duties of DECVP until January 1988 and much of the correspondence in the series prior to that time concerns organization of the VPDEC Front Office, personnel matters, and scheduling of meetings. A significant amount of his correspondence is from the directors and division chiefs of the International Economics Department (IEC), the Country Economics Department (CEC), the Economic Development Institute (EDI), and his Front Office staff. Incoming communications are found with some of Fischer's outgoing memoranda, letters, e-mail, handwritten notes, and other communications. Copies of policy briefs and outlines for studies and papers, policy papers, and research papers on the debt crisis, structural and sectoral adjustment lending, trade policy, environmental issues, and other international economic issues were forwarded from the divisions and the Front Office for Fischer's review and/or further action. Structuring of work programs, proposals for the annual World Development Report (WDR) and drafts of the WDR, World Debt Tables, and proposals for EDI training are also subjects of Fischer's correspondence.

As Chief Economist, Fischer served as principal economic adviser to President Barber Conable (EXC) and to W. David Hopper, Senior Vice President, Policy, Planning and Research [PPRSV] and Hopper's successor, Wilfried P. Thalwitz, Senior Vice President, Policy, Research and External Affairs [PPRSV]. Fischer's memos, informal notes, and other communications with PPRSV are found throughout the series. Memos and informal notes sent in his role as Chief Economist to Moeen A Qureshi, Senior Vice President, Operations (OPNSV) and Ernest Stern, Senior Vice President, Finance (FNSV) concern matters coming before the Operations Committee.

Found with correspondence for 1988 are Fischer's briefing papers for Conable for a June 1988 meeting at the Bank with the Director-General, GATT, Arthur Dunkel and for an August 1988 meeting with Julius Katz, Chairman of the Uruguay Round Negotiating Group on the Functioning of the GATT System (FOGS); Fischer's background paper containing information for an October 1988 meeting between Conable and Romano Prodi, President of the Instituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI); memos prepared for Conable on the debt problem (May 1988) and Argentine loans (August 1988); and talking points for Conable's May 1988 speech at the brookings Institution.Among the 1989 correspondence are talking points Fischer prepared for a Conable-Camdessus luncheon meeting on proposals to improve collaboration between the Bank and IMF; a policy brief prepared for Conable on Experience in Trade Reform (April 1989); an informal memo on the Brady Plan debt strategy (April 1989); a draft memo to Conable on World Bank Intellectual Leadership (September 1989); and a formal proposal to Conable regarding establishment of a Socialist Economy Reform Unit within CEC (October 1989)which was approved the following month. Among the 1990 correspondence are several memos containing talking points for Conable-Camdessus luncheon meetings.

Fischer also corresponded with OPNSV regarding the classification of economists. Found throughout the series are Fischer's memos announcing meetings of the Economists Review Panel which he chaired, announcing actions taken by the panels, addressing appeals to the panels' actions, and inviting Bank staff to fill panel vacancies. The series also contains Fischer's correspondence as Chairman of the EDI Advisory Board and the Research Committee and his correspondence with the Research Administrator (RAD). Some Fischer correspondence with the Vice President, Sector Policy and Research [PREVP], Visvanathan Rajagopalan, is also part of the series.

Back-to-Office (BTO) Reports prepared by Fischer following trips to Argentina, Germany, Switzerland (Geneva), and China in 1988, to Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Yugoslavia, and Poland in 1989, and Japan, Israel, India, Poland, and London in 1990 are in the series. Also part of the series are copies of speeches, Il Messagero articles, and other papers Fischer prepared that were sent to DEC managers who provided him input. Correspondence with other Bank officials and papers forwarded to him for comment from other Bank offices and some outside economists are part of the series. Routine correspondence concerning administrative and personnel matters are scattered throughout the series. Fischer's last official day as DECVP was August 31, 1990 but the series includes correspondence for September - December 1990 during which time Fischer made brief visits to the Bank from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) and served as a consultant to the joint Bank/IMF study of the Soviet economy.