A large and growing academic literature seeks to analyse the key aspects of the International Monetary Fund’s operations from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. This two-volume set draws together what are generally acknowledged to be the most important contributions. In the main it...

Does the involvement of the IMF and World Bank in developing countries and countries in transition help them to attract capital from other sources? Do the multilateral institutions exert a catalytic effect? While there is a strong body of opinion that claims that they do, the catalytic effect...

Increasing attention is being paid to political economy dimensions of the IMF's operations. However, up until now, the literature has lacked a systematic overview of how politics and economics interact in this context. This paper sets out to fill the gap. Its conceptual basis is that of the...

Until the late 1980s, it was a stylized fact that when a country adopted an IMF program, additional loans from non-IMF sources would be triggered. Subsequent empirical research cast doubt on this catalytic effect; a country's past involvement with the IMF appeared to be negatively correlated...

IMF programmes have sought to balance economic adjustment and external financing in part by relying on catalysing capital inflows from other sources. This paper reviews the mechanisms by which catalysis is believed to operate, and the evidence pertaining to its existence. The conclusion is that...