One feature of adjustment loans that has been often overlooked in their evaluation is their frequent repetition to the same country, with such extremes as the 30 IMF and World Bank adjustment loans to Argentina over 1980-99 or the 26 adjustment loans to Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. The rate of...

The response of economic growth to reforms in Latin America has not been disappointing. Because of those policy changes, and despite a global slowdown, Latin America did well to return to its historic growth rate of 2 percent per capita in 1990-93. After years of poor macroeconomic performance,...

Analysis of adjustment loans often overlooks their repetition to the same country. Repetition changes the nature of the selection problem. None of the top 20 recipients of repeated adjustment lending over 1980-99 were able to achieve reasonable growth and contain all policy distortions. About...