This series contains correspondence, reports, and other records that Ronald C. Duncan maintained primarily while he was director of the International Commodity Markets Division (IECCM) and later the International Trade Division (IECIT) in the International Economics Department. Duncan served as Division Chief in IECCM from 1 July 1987 until 1 May 1990 when he became Division Chief in IECIT. Prior to this he was Divisions Chief in the Economic Program Department's Commodity and Export Projects Division (EPDCS) between 1984 and 1987.

One file in this series, Support to the Regions, documents Duncan's units' support to the regions dating from 1984 when he was director of EPDCS to 1993 when he directed IECIT. Other files concern commodity price forecasting; commodity problems in Africa; the drafting of a paper, Bank Policy on the Financing of Commodities, which was discussed at the October 1989 meeting of the Operations Committee; Bank lending for plantation crops (tea, coffee, and cocoa); and possible researchwork on Eastern Europe. Several files contain correspondence and reports on research in units headed by Duncan. One concerns research funded by IECIT, rather than by the Research Support Budget (RSB). Another contains IEC proposals, 1993-1994, for RSB-funded research, and one updates the FY 1995 status of RSB-funded research projects in IECIT.