IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/csl/devewp/191.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Who runs the IFIs?

Author

Listed:
  • Riccardo Faini

    (University of Rome Tor Vergata and CEPR, London)

  • Enzo Grilli

    (Johns Hopkins University-SAIS, Washington D.C.)

Abstract

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund play a key role in the international economic architecture. Yet, they are also ‘political’ institutions and their activities inevitably respond to the national interest of one or a group of shareholders. Assessing the role of ‘influential’ shareholders is however made difficult by the fact that votes in the Boards of either institutions are rarely recorded and at any rate are not made public. We take a different route and look at the pattern of lending of both institutions as a function of their institutional mission and the commercial and financial interests of their main shareholders. We find that the Bank and especially the Fund are quick to respond to the borrowing needs of their members, particularly during a balance of payments crisis. Apart from that, however, the lending pattern of the two institutions is influenced by the commercial and the financial interests of the US and, to a lesser extent, of the EU. European countries in particular seems to be much more concerned by their commercial interests. The role of Japan is even smaller and more regional, being largely confined to decisions concerning Asia.

Suggested Citation

  • Riccardo Faini & Enzo Grilli, 2004. "Who runs the IFIs?," Development Working Papers 191, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    • Handle: RePEc:csl:devewp:191
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.dagliano.unimi.it/media/WP2004_191.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeremy Bulow & Kenneth Rogoff, 1988. "Multilateral Negotiations for Rescheduling Developing Country Debt: A Bargaining-Theoretic Framework," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 35(4), pages 644-657, December.
    2. Fischer, Stanley, 1999. "Reforming the International Financial System," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(459), pages 557-576, November.
    3. Curzio Giannini, 1998. ""Enemy of None but a Common Friend of All"? An International Perspective on the Lender-of-Last-Resort Function," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 341, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    4. C. Fred Bergsten, 1998. "Reviving the "Asian Monetary Fund"," Policy Briefs PB98-8, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    5. Rodrik, Dani, 1995. "Why is there Multilateral Lending?," CEPR Discussion Papers 1207, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    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. Axel Dreher & Jan-Egbert Sturm, 2012. "Do the IMF and the World Bank influence voting in the UN General Assembly?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 363-397, April.
    2. Axel Dreher & Silvia Marchesi & James Vreeland, 2008. "The political economy of IMF forecasts," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 137(1), pages 145-171, October.
    3. repec:got:cegedp:123 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Axel Dreher & James Raymond Vreeland, 2011. "Buying Votes and International Organizations," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 78, Courant Research Centre PEG.
    5. Alan Ahearne & Jean Pisani-Ferry & Andre Sapir & Nicolas Veron, 2008. "The EU and the governance of globalisation," International Journal of Public Policy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 3(1/2), pages 118-139.
    6. Axel Dreher & Jan-Egbert Sturm & James Raymond Vreeland, 2006. "Does Membership on the UN Security Council Influence IMF Decisions? Evidence from Panel Data," CESifo Working Paper Series 1808, CESifo.
    7. Pincin, Jared, 2012. "Foreign aid and political influence of the development assistance committee countries," MPRA Paper 39668, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Matteo Bobba & Andrew Powell, 2006. "Multilateral Intermediation of Foreign Aid: What is the Trade-Off for Donor Countries?," Research Department Publications 4500, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    9. Matteo Bobba & Andrew Powell, 2006. "Mediación multilateral de la ayuda extranjera," Research Department Publications 4501, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    10. Paolo Pinotti & Riccardo Settimo, 2011. "Does aid buy votes?," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 101, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    11. Elena V. McLean, 2017. "The politics of contract allocation in the World Bank," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 255-279, June.
    12. Axel Dreher & Silvia Marchesi & James Raymond Vreeland, 2007. "The Politics of IMF Forecasts," KOF Working papers 07-176, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.

    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. Wasseem Mina & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2002. "IMF Lending, Maturity of International Debt and Moral Hazard," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0301, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    2. Dooley, Michael P., 2000. "International financial architecture and strategic default: can financial crises be less painful?," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 361-377, December.
    3. Gina Yannitell Reinhardt, 2006. "Shortcuts and Signals: An Analysis of the Micro‐level Determinants of Aid Allocation, with Case Study Evidence from Brazil," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(2), pages 297-312, May.
    4. Independent Evaluation Group, 2008. "Independent Evaluation of IFC's Development Results 2008 : IFC's Additionality in Supporting Private Sector Development," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6576.
    5. Christopher Kilby, 2006. "Donor influence in multilateral development banks: The case of the Asian Development Bank," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 173-195, June.
    6. Bhattacharya, S., 1991. "Sovereign debt, creditor-country governments, and multilateral institutions," Discussion Paper 1991-62, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    7. Sergio Clavijo, 2000. "Las Multilaterales Y Las Crisis Asiática (1997-2000): La Visión Desde Un País Usuario (Colombia)," Borradores de Economia 3119, Banco de la Republica.
    8. Hugo Oriola & Jamel Saadaoui, 2024. "How do geopolitical interests affect financial markets reaction to international institution projects?," Working Papers of BETA 2024-25, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    9. Mohamed Boly, 2018. "CO 2 mitigation in developing countries: the role of foreign aid," Working Papers halshs-01740881, HAL.
    10. Yilmaz AKYüZ, 2005. "Reforming The Imf: Back To The Drawing Board," G-24 Discussion Papers 38, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    11. Alice Nicole Sindzingre, 2015. "‘Policy Externalisation’ Inherent Failure: International Financial Institutions’ Conditionality in Developing Countries," Post-Print hal-01668367, HAL.
    12. Stephen A.O`Connell and Charles C.Soludo, 1998. "Aid intensity in Africa," Economics Series Working Papers WPS/1999-03, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    13. Michael P. Dooley, 2000. "Can Output Losses Following International Financial Crises be Avoided?," NBER Working Papers 7531, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Kaya, Ayse & Kilby, Christopher & Kay, Jonathan, 2021. "Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as an instrument for Chinese influence? Supplementary versus remedial multilateralism," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    15. Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2010. "Aid and Conditionality," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4415-4523, Elsevier.
    16. Woosik Moon & Yeongseop Rhee, 2012. "Asian Monetary Integration," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14191.
    17. Winkler, Adalbert, 2001. "On the need for an international lender of last resort: Lessons from domestic financial markets," W.E.P. - Würzburg Economic Papers 28, University of Würzburg, Department of Economics.
    18. Jonathan Munemo, 2011. "Foreign aid and export diversification in developing countries," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 339-355.
    19. Maurice Obstfeld, 2013. "The International Monetary System: Living with Asymmetry," NBER Chapters, in: Globalization in an Age of Crisis: Multilateral Economic Cooperation in the Twenty-First Century, pages 301-336, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Helge Berger & Giovanni Dell’Ariccia & Maurice Obstfeld, 2019. "Revisiting the Economic Case for Fiscal Union in the Euro Area," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 67(3), pages 657-683, September.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F02 - International Economics - - General - - - International Economic Order and Integration
    • F34 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Lending and Debt Problems

    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:csl:devewp:191. 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: Chiara Elli (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/damilit.html .

    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.