In the aftermath of the 1997/1998 crisis, Asian economies have built up large holdings of international reserves. Although initially encouraged to do so by the IMF, more recently they have been criticised for maintaining undervalued currencies, running large current account balance of payments...

The East Asian financial crisis has spawned a number of proposals for institutional reform. Some envisage reforming existing institutions, particularly the International Monetary Fund (IMF), while others suggest that new institutions are needed. Amongst them is the idea of establishing an Asian...

The IMF advertises itself as playing a catalytic role, whereby its lending programmes induce other providers of finance to invest or lend as well. The theoretical foundations of this claim are reviewed and found to be questionable. The empirical evidence also appears to contradict the notion of...

In the aftermath of the East Asian financial crisis there has been much discussion of exchange rate policy in developing countries. Some observers have suggested that they should opt either for flexible exchange rates or for firmly fixed rates. Adopting the US dollar as legal tender and...

Increasing concern has been expressed by both scholars and officials about political bias and influence in the IMF. This is seen as threatening the effectiveness of the institution. But how can the problem be resolved? One way would be to try to create greater political balance by changing...

In the aftermath of the East Asian financial crisis there has been much discussion of a new international financial architecture. A significant contribution to this debate is the Report of the International Financial Institution Advisory Commission, sponsored by the US Congress, which was...

The concept of globalisation has received a great deal of popular attention in recent years. However, the term is often used quite loosely. When defined to mean closer international economic integration, the evidence shows that the extent of globalisation may easily be exaggerated. This article...

The IMF presents multilateral surveillance as one of its core responsibilities and has recently sought to enhance this role via a series of multilateral consultations with systemically important countries, designed to coordinate exchange rate and macroeconomic policy in order to reduce the...