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Who's in Charge? Ownership and Conditionality in IMF-Supported Programs
IMF lending is conditional on a country's commitment to carry out an agreed program of economic policies. Unless that commitment is genuine and broadly held, the likelihood of implementation will be poor. Is there a conflict between national commitment and conditional finance? Are national authorities or other agents in the country less likely to "own" a reform program simply because it is conditionally financed? This paper argues that potential conflicts are reduced when program design takes the country's interests and circumstances into account and when conditionality results from a genuine process of interaction between the IMF and the borrower.
IMF and the Force of History
The world and the IMF have undergone profound changes since the Bretton Woods Conference. James Boughton, former historian of the IMF, looks at key events that have shaped the IMF and the international scene. From the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 to the Great Recession, this essay focuses on 11 events in history that have influenced the design and work of the IMF, as well as the international monetary system. This booklet, prepared for the 70th anniversary of the IMF, is an excerpt from a longer essay that is available on the IMF eLibrary. It is an excellent primer on the motivation behind the founding of the IMF and the evolution of the organization.
The Future of the SDR in Light of Changes in the International Monetary System
This book edited by Michael Mussa, James M. Boughton, and Peter Isard, records the proceedings of a seminar held at the IMF in March 1996 on the future of the special drawing right (SDR), given changes in the international monetary system since the inception of the SDR. The seminar focuses on the differences in opinion in the international community on the desirability or feasibility of an additional allocation of SDRs.
Fifty Years After Bretton Woods
This volume, edited by James M. Boughton and K. Sarwar Lateef, contains the proceedings of a conference held in Madrid, Spain, in 1994, by the IMF and the World Bank to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Bretton Woods conference of July 1944 that created the two institutions. The conference provided a forum for reflection and for reassessing the roles of the institutions as they approach the twenty-first century.
Why White, Not Keynes? Inventing the Post-War International Monetary System
The international monetary system is largely the product of negotiations during World War II between U.S. and U.K. officials, led respectively by Harry Dexter White and John Maynard Keynes. The design of the system, especially the International Monetary Fund, reflects the U.S. plan much more than the British. That outcome resulted not only from the superior economic position of the United States but also from differences between White's and Keynes's views on key issues. Examination of White's economic papers shows that he was more multilateral than Keynes and placed a higher priority on monetary discipline.
Modeling the World Economic Outlook At the IMF
The World Economic Outlook (WEO) exercise at the IMF evolved during the 1980s, partly in response to demands by policymakers in national finance ministries for objective and internationally comparable projections and policy scenarios. The exercise had begun as a staff initiative, encouraged by the Managing Director (Johannes Witteveen). Gradually, the Executive Board, the Interim Committee, the Group of Seven, and others came to view the discussion of the WEO documents as an important element in their efforts to keep abreast of world economic developments and prospects. Direct and indirect feedback from those discussions informed the staff as to how the exercise should be improved. Driven by this policy relevance, the WEO evolved from a decentralized project that was only haphazardly model-based into a more rigorous and coordinated exercise.
From Suez to Tequila
The IMF was established in 1944 in part to “give confidence” to member countries by providing short-term credits. Although the intention was that the availability of the Fund’s resources should prevent countries from experiencing financial crises, in practice the institution often has found itself helping its members cope with crises after they occur. This paper examines how the role of the IMF as crisis manager has evolved over time, from its earliest loans to the exchange crisis that hit Mexico in December 1994. It argues that the defining moment for this role was the international debt crisis of 1982.
American in the Shadows
Two economists designed the main features of the charter of the IMF during World War II: John Maynard Keynes and Harry Dexter White. Several of those features are attributable primarily to White, including the adoption of fixed but adjustable exchange rates, the funding of operations with national currencies deposited by member states, extending credits through currency swaps rather than conventional loans, making these credits subject to policy conditions, and encouraging members to retain capital controls as an option for use in difficult circumstances. This study of archival material helps to uncover White's role in this design process.
The IMF and the Silent Revolution
This pamphlet is adapted from Chapter 1 of Silent Revolution: The International Monetary Fund, 1979-89, by the same author. That book is full of history of the evolution of the Fund during 11 years in which the institution truly came of age as a participant in the international financial system.
Silent Revolution
This volume, fourth in a series of periodic histories of the institution, is as much a history of the world economy during 1979-89 as one of the IMF itself. Boughton discusses the IMF’s surveillance of the international monetary system in the 1980s; the Fund’s role in the international debt crisis of the 1980s, and IMF lending in support of structural adjustment in low-income countries during that period. The volume concludes with a general history of the institution, including the quota system, the SDR, membership, and other institutional matters.
