The eurozone crisis has focused attention on what caused it, how it can be handled and what can be done to avoid future crises. Against this background all but two member states of the European Union have signed a draft treaty, the 'fiscal compact', that seeks to eliminate structural fiscal...

In this paper, we examine the stability of international macroeconomic policies of developing countries in the post-Bretton Woods period. We use the simple geometry of the classic, open-economy trilemma to construct a new, univariate measure of inter- national macroeconomic policy stability, and...

The success of IMF supported programmes has conventionally been assessed by examining their effects on intermediate variables such as fiscal deficits, monetary growth and exchange rates, and final outcomes, such as the balance of payments, inflation and economic growth. However, little or no...

Traditional models have encountered problems in explaining the ac- cumulation of international reserves, particularly in Asia, in the period since the late 1990s. One suggestion has been that countries have sought to self insure against future crises, either because of a perceived increase in...

Some commentators have claimed that there is a growing Beijing Consensus among emerging and developing economies concerning the merits of ChinaÕs economic policies. Within an analytical framework provided by the well known international trilemma, this paper investigates the empirical evidence...

The International Monetary Fund’s structure and rules are based on the quota system that was constructed when the Fund was set up in 1946. Quotas affect contributions and resource availability at the Fund, access to resources, the distribution of Special Drawing Rights, and voting rights....

Claims have been made that capital account crisis (CAC) countries are discernibly different in terms of the characteristics that lead them to borrow from the IMF. This paper tests these claims. It uses a conventional model of IMF lending to estimate the probability of countries having an IMF...

Increasing attention is being paid to IMF governance, and the structure and size of the Fund’s lending operations. However, less interest has been shown in the array of lending windows through which the IMF makes resources available. There have nonetheless been clear trends over recent years...

Recent theoretical and empirical research suggests that under certain conditions IMF agreements induce additional inflows of finance from other private sources. This paper provides new empirical evidence on this catalytic effect using a treatment effects model to correct for selectivity. It...

Has the global economic crisis resulted in countries shifting their exchange rate regimes and, if so, in what way? Focusing on the relevant period of 2008-12, and using the IMF’s Annual Report on Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions (AREAER) classification of exchange rate...