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The IMF and the force of History: Ten Events and Ten Ideas that Have Shaped the Institution

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  • Mr. James M. Boughton

Abstract

The International Monetary Fund was designed during World War II by men whose worldview had been shaped by the Great War and the Great Depression. Their views on how the postwar international monetary system should function were also shaped by their economics training and their nationalities. After the IMF began functioning as an institution, its evolution was similarly driven by a combination of political events (Suez, African independence, the collapse of global communism), economic events (the rising economic power of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia), and trends and cycles in economic theory (the monetary approach to the balance of payments, new classical economics, the rise and fall of the Washington Consensus). As they happened, these forces had effects that were perceived as adaptations to current events and new ideas within a fixed institutional structure and mandate. The cumulative effect of history on the institution has been rather more profound and requires a longer and larger perspective.

Suggested Citation

  • Mr. James M. Boughton, 2004. "The IMF and the force of History: Ten Events and Ten Ideas that Have Shaped the Institution," IMF Working Papers 2004/075, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2004/075
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    6. Albertina Nania, 2022. "Redesigning the International Monetary System. Intellectual Influences and the Return of the Special Drawing Rights: An Open Issue," HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2022(2), pages 123-129.
    7. Cedrini Mario, 2007. "Consensus vs. freedom of consensus upon freedom? From Washington disorder to the rediscovery of Keynes," CESMEP Working Papers 200708, University of Turin.
    8. Akram, Q. Farooq, 2011. "Policy analysis in real time using IMF's monetary model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 1696-1709, July.
    9. Janusz Sawicki, 2011. "Debt Reduction in the Eurozone," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 7-8, pages 1-20.
    10. Mr. Eugenio M Cerutti, 2007. "IMF Drawing Programs: Participation Determinants and Forecasting," IMF Working Papers 2007/152, International Monetary Fund.
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    12. Ben Clift & Jim Tomlinson, 2012. "When rules started to rule: the IMF, neo-liberal economic ideas and economic policy change in Britain," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 477-500, August.

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