IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/revpoe/v25y2013i1p69-90.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The IMF, Crises and Low-Income Countries: Evidence of Change?

Author

Listed:
  • Elisa Van Waeyenberge
  • Hannah Bargawi
  • Terry McKinley

Abstract

This paper assesses the policy role of the IMF in Low-Income Countries (LICs) in the wake of the global financial crisis and in response to its own claims of policy redesign and increased flexibility. The assessment focuses on the Fund's monetary and fiscal policy stance in a selection of case study countries over the period 2008−2010. The paper finds that while the IMF has allowed for modest and short-term fiscal and monetary accommodation as an immediate response to the crisis, the Fund's medium to long-term policy agenda has remained unchanged. Both theory and evidence suggest that the Fund remains committed to its pre-crisis policy priorities. Furthermore, the global financial crisis appears to have enabled the Fund to reassert its role as guardian of an orthodox macroeconomic order. These developments are particularly troublesome given that the Fund's prevailing macroeconomic framework continues to be inconsistent with the urgent development needs of LICs, where more expansionary fiscal policies and more liquidity-focused monetary policies are needed to support structural diversification, and foster sustainable and equitable growth and development.

Suggested Citation

  • Elisa Van Waeyenberge & Hannah Bargawi & Terry McKinley, 2013. "The IMF, Crises and Low-Income Countries: Evidence of Change?," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 69-90, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:revpoe:v:25:y:2013:i:1:p:69-90
    DOI: 10.1080/09538259.2013.737125
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09538259.2013.737125
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09538259.2013.737125?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark Weisbrot & Rebecca Ray & Jake Johnston & Jose Antonio Cordero, 2009. "IMF-Supported Macroeconomic Policies and the World Recession: A Look at Forty-One Borrowing Countries," CEPR Reports and Issue Briefs 2009-37, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lauren Hackler & Frank Hefner & Mark D. Witte, 2020. "The Effects of IMF Loan Condition Compliance on GDP Growth," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 65(1), pages 88-96, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Antonio Mele & Radoslaw Stefanski, 2019. "Velocity in the Long Run: Money and Structural Transformation," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 31, pages 393-410, January.
    2. José Antonio Ocampo, 2015. "Resolution of balance of payments crises: Emergency financing and debt workouts," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-011, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Matti Ylönen, 2017. "Policy diffusion within international organizations: A bottom-up analysis of International Monetary Fund tax work in Panama, Seychelles, and the Netherlands," WIDER Working Paper Series 157, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Ilene Grabel, 2012. "Financial Architectures and Development: Resilience, Policy Space, and Human Development in the Global South (revised June 2012)," Working Papers wp281_revised, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    5. Ilene Grabel, 2015. "The rebranding of capital controls in an era of productive incoherence," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 7-43, February.
    6. repec:ilo:ilowps:485513 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Antonio Mele & Radoslaw Stefanski, 2019. "Velocity in the Long Run: Money and Structural Transformation," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 31, pages 393-410, January.
    8. Matti Ylönen, 2017. "Policy diffusion within international organizations: A bottom-up analysis of International Monetary Fund tax work in Panama, Seychelles, and the Netherlands," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-157, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Antonio Mele & Radoslaw Stefanski, 2019. "Velocity in the Long Run: Money and Structural Transformation," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 31, pages 393-410, January.
    10. Chiara Piovani & Nursel Aydiner-Avsar, 2015. "The Gender Impact of Social Protection Policies: A Critical Review of the Evidence," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 410-441, July.
    11. Weisbrot, Mark. & Jorgensen, Helene., 2013. "Macroeconomic policy advice and the article IV consultations comparative overview of European Union member states," ILO Working Papers 994855133402676, International Labour Organization.
    12. Mark Weisbrot, 2013. "Economic growth: the great slowdown (1980-2000) and recovery (2000-2010)," Chapters, in: Jeannette Wicks-Lim & Robert Pollin (ed.), Capitalism on Trial, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Howard Stein, 2012. "The Neoliberal Policy Paradigm and the Great Recession," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 59(4), pages 421-440, September.
    14. Alexander E. Kentikelenis & Thomas H. Stubbs & Lawrence P. King, 2016. "IMF conditionality and development policy space, 1985–2014," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 543-582, July.
    15. Mark Weisbrot & Rebecca Ray, 2011. "The Scorecard on Development, 1960-2010: Closing the Gap?," CEPR Reports and Issue Briefs 2011-09, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
    16. Amrita Chhachhi & Matías Vernengo & Kirsten Ford, 2014. "Everything Must Change so that the IMF Can Remain the Same: The World Economic Outlook and the Global Financial Stability Report," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(5), pages 1193-1204, September.
    17. Jafri, Juvaria, 2014. "Should we be Austere? A Normative look at Public Debt," MPRA Paper 63337, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. José Antonio Ocampo, 2017. "Resetting the International Monetary (Non)System," Books, Red Investigadores de Economía, number 2017-11, May.
    19. José Antonio Ocampo, 2015. "Resolution of balance of payments crises: Emergency financing and debt Workouts," WIDER Working Paper Series 011, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:revpoe:v:25:y:2013:i:1:p:69-90. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CRPE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.