IMF and the Future

Graham Bird is Professor of Economics at the University of Surrey

• 1. A Case for Treatment: Understanding the Ongoing Debate about the IMF2. Borrowing from the IMF: The Policy Implications of Recent Empirical Research3. IMF Lending: How is it Affected by Economic, Political and Institutional Factors?4. IMF Programmes: Do They Work? Can They Be Made to Work Better?5. The Effectiveness of Conditionality and the Political Economy of Political Reform: Is it Simply a Matter of Political Will?6. IMF Programmes: Is There a Conditionality Laffer Curve?7. The Credibility and Signaling Effect of IMF Programmes8. The IMF's Role in Mobilising International Capital: Is There a Catalytic Effect?9. Restructuring the IMF's Lending Facilities10. Resourcing the Fund: Direct Borrowing from Private Capital Markets11. Crisis Averter, Crisis Lender, Crisis Manager: The IMF in Search of a Systemic Role12. The IMF and Developing Countries: A Review of the Evidence and Policy Options13. The Political Economy of the IMF: A Check List of the Issues14. The Political Economy of the SDR: The Rise and Fall of an International Reserve Asset

'The IMF and the Future will interest anyone who seeks to understand the complexities of the IMF role in the world economy and is prepared to live with the dismalness of economic science ... it is an excellent survey of the policy choices and problems that pushed the IMF in the direction it is moving today.'- James M. Boughton, Times Higher Education Supplement