James Wolfensohn, the Bank’s previous president, and I are widely credited with putting corruption on the Bank’s agenda, against opponents who regarded corruption as a political issue, not an economic one, and thus outside the Bank’s mandate. Our research showed systematic relationships between corruption and economic growth, which allowed us to pursue this critical issue.
世界银行的前任行长沃尔福森和我不顾反对把腐败问题列入该行的议题而广受赞誉。那些反对者把腐败视为一个政治问题，而非经济问题，因而超出了世界银行的职权范围。我们的研究表明，腐败和经济增长之间存在体系上的关系，这一关系使得我们可以探究这一关键问题。