IMF programs are designed to provide a temporary source of finance for countries with balance of payments disequilibria. Consequently, borrowing from the IMF should occur infrequently and be widely distributed among member countries. However, some countries are recurrent users of Fund resources....

Most analyses of the East Asian financial crisis have focused on its causes and the links between currency and banking crises. However a related question is what happens in the aftermath of a crisis? What factors determine the path of an economy in the post-devaluation phase? Does it swiftly...

To what extent and within what time frame did countries in East Asia recover from the 1997-98 crisis, and, if there has been a recovery, can it be sustained? Drawing on the available evidence, this paper attempts to answer these questions. By implication, however, it also has something to say...

Given its potentially global significance and the attention that there tends to be towards things that go wrong, it is hardly surprising that most of the literature dealing with economic events in East Asia during recent years has concentrated on the crisis period of 1997 and 1998. This work has...

One way of assessing the impact of IMF programmes is to see whether performance and policy targets are achieved. However, does a failure to hit targets mean that the programmes have been unsuccessful, or could it be that targets have been too ambitious? This paper analyses political economy...

Books reviewed: INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND, Fiscal Adjustment in IMF-Supported Programs: Evaluation Report Structural Impediments to Growth in Japan, Magnus Blomstrom ed. Inflation Targeting in the World Economy, by Edwin M. Truman

Although a great deal of attention has been paid to IMF conditionality and to the effects of IMF programmes, relatively little attention has been paid to their completion rate. However, the record is that the clear majority of Fund programmes are uncompleted. Is this a cause for concern and why...

This paper has a number of purposes. First, it revisits the older theory of reserve adequacy and optimality to see whether this can still be used and perhaps strengthened in ways that would inform the current debate. Second, it explores the connection between reserve adequacy and currency crisis...

Although a great deal of attention has been paid to IMF conditionality and to the effects of IMF programmes, relatively little attention has been paid to their completion rate. However, the record is that the clear majority of Fund programmes are uncompleted. Is this a cause for concern and why...

To what extent and within what time frame did countries in East Asia recover from the 1997-98 crisis, and, if there has been a recovery, can it be sustained? Drawing on the available evidence, this paper attempts to answer these questions. By implication, however, it also has something to say...