IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/amposc/v60y2016i2p304-321.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

IMF Conditionality, Government Partisanship, and the Progress of Economic Reforms

Author

Listed:
  • Quintin H. Beazer
  • Byungwon Woo

Abstract

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) often seeks to influence countries' domestic public policy via varying levels of conditionality—linking financial support to borrowing governments' commitment to policy reforms. When does extensive conditionality encourage domestic economic reforms and when does it impede them? We argue that, rather than universally benefiting or harming reforms, the effects of stricter IMF conditionality depend on domestic partisan politics. More IMF conditions can pressure left‐wing governments into undertaking more ambitious reforms with little resistance from partisan rivals on the right; under right governments, however, more conditions hinder reform implementation by heightening resistance from the left while simultaneously reducing leaders' ability to win their support through concessions or compromise. Using data on post‐communist IMF programs for the period 1994–2010, we find robust evidence supporting these claims, even after addressing the endogeneity of IMF programs via instrumental variables analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Quintin H. Beazer & Byungwon Woo, 2016. "IMF Conditionality, Government Partisanship, and the Progress of Economic Reforms," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 60(2), pages 304-321, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:60:y:2016:i:2:p:304-321
    DOI: 10.1111/ajps.12200
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12200
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ajps.12200?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Toke S. Aidt & Facundo Albornoz & Esther Hauk, 2019. "Foreign in influence and domestic policy: A survey," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1928, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    2. Reinsberg, Bernhard & Kern, Andreas & Rau-Göhring, Matthias, 2021. "The political economy of IMF conditionality and central bank independence," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    3. Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati & Samuel Brazys, 2023. "Does cultural diversity hinder the implementation of IMF-supported programs? An empirical investigation," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 87-116, January.
    4. Toke S. Aidt & Facundo Albornoz & Esther Hauk, 2021. "Foreign Influence and Domestic Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 426-487, June.
    5. Thomas Stubbs & Bernhard Reinsberg & Alexander Kentikelenis & Lawrence King, 2020. "How to evaluate the effects of IMF conditionality," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 29-73, January.
    6. Saliha Metinsoy, 2022. "“Selective Friendship at the Fund”: United States Allies, Labor Conditions, and the International Monetary Fund’s Legitimacy," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(3), pages 143-154.
    7. Bernardo Guimaraes & Carlos Eduardo Ladeira, 2021. "The determinants of IMF fiscal conditionality: Economics or politics?," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(3), pages 1361-1399, November.
    8. Cormier, Ben, 2022. "Partisan external borrowing in middle-income countries," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113929, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Salih BARIŞIK & Kubilay ERGEN, 2023. "Heterogenous Effects of the Determinants of Pro-market Reforms: Panel Quantile Estimation for OECD Countries," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(2), pages 36-51, June.
    10. Kern, Andreas & Reinsberg, Bernhard & Rau-Göhring, Matthias, 2019. "IMF conditionality and central bank independence," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 212-229.
    11. Iasmin Goes, 2023. "Examining the effect of IMF conditionality on natural resource policy," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 227-285, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:60:y:2016:i:2:p:304-321. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1540-5907 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.