Over the last two decades a number of cross-country empirical studies have been undertaken to assess whether IMF-supported adjustment programs have led to an improved balance of payments and current account balance, lower inflation, and higher growth. These studies use a variety of methodologies...

This volume presents the proceedings of a symposium that was orgainzed jointly by the IMF and the World Bank and held in Washington, D.C. The symposium was organized by Vittorio Corbo, Morris Goldstein, and Mohsin Khan. The papers review the design of, and the economic rationale behind,...

The paper uses finance and agency theory to establish two main propositions: First, that the conditionality attached to adjustment programs supported by the IMF is justified. Second, that ownership of programs by the borrowing country is crucial for their success. Hence, since both IMF...