Growth oriented adjustment programs : a statistical analysis

After the fall in average per capita GDP growth that took place in the 1980s, adjustment lending programs supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) were launched in response to the deteriorating external environment. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and to assess statistically the extent to which adjustment programs supported by the IMF and the WB have restored growth. The evaluation relied on a large sample of countries (93) and controls for some of the statistical difficulties associated with measuring the effectiveness of adjustment programs. The paper reviews the environment under which IMF-WB lending took place, the rationale for adjustment lending, and the distribution of adjustment loans through time. The results of the statistical evaluation suggest that, after controlling for external factors and for initial conditions, growth is not higher in countries that receive IMF-WB funds, but that investment was significantly lower than for non-recipient countries. The paper also examines further long-term growth prospects.