Description:The Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics is one of the world's best-known series of conferences for the presentation and discussion of new knowledge on development. The conference provides a forum for the world's leading development thinkers to share new knowledge and ideas. In 1999, in recognition of Europe's pivotal role in the provision of development assistance and in order to bring the World Bank’s research on development into close contact with European perspectives, the World Bank created a distinctively European platform for debate on development issues. The seventh Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics in Europe was held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, May 23–24, 2005. The conference was coorganized by the Government of the Netherlands and the World Bank. The theme of the conference was “Securing Development in an Unstable World. IN THIS VOLUME: Introduction by Fran?ois Bourguignon, Boris Pleskovic, and Jacques van der Gaag; welcome address by Jean-Fran?ois Rischard; opening address by Agnes van Ardenne-van der Hoeven; keynote addresses by Fran?ois Bourguignon, Hisashi Owada, Gerrit Zalm, and Ernesto Zedillo; papers by Stefan Dercon, Patrick Guillaumont, and Joep Lange; and comments by Duncan Green, Paul Mosley, Fran?oise Ndayishimiye, Henk Rijckborst, and Richard Wilcox.