Grigore Pop-Eleches. 2009. From Economic Crisis to Reform: IMF Programs in Latin American and Eastern Europe (Princeton: Princeton University Press).

Abstract

This is an excellent book which brings a new and interesting perspective to an important issue. With the current global financial crisis heightening demand for IMF resources this book could not be timelier. There is, of course, a wealth of scholarly literature on economic crises, market reforms, and IMF programs (Bird 2007). Yet few of these studies have sought to craft a rigorous synthesis of the insights of comparative and international political economists. Pop-Eleches breaks new ground by systematically exploring how the interaction between domestic and international determinants of IMF-supported reforms in Latin America and Eastern Europe since the 1980s is contingent on the temporal and geographic context in which they are situated. Pop-Eleches begins by posing a number of interesting questions. Why and how do economic crises trigger IMF-supported market reforms? How does IMF lending reflect the evolving contours of international financial markets and the political priorities of powerful states? What role do domestic interests and institutions play in a government’s willingness and capacity to implement IMF-supported reforms? In answering these questions, Pop-Eleches offers a novel answer: the response of the IMF and governments to economic crises depends largely on the particular regional and temporal context in which the reforms are situated. At the international level, he shows that the Fund’s response was driven by the evolving contours of international financial markets and the political priorities of its powerful states. In the 1980s, the systemic implications of the Latin American debt crisis took centre stage. The IMF, with its “institutional interest” in preserving international financial stability, responded by prioritizing austerity geared toward debt repayment. Powerful states also shaped the IMF response. These powerful states, many of whose financial institutions were heavily exposed to Latin Rev Int Organ (2009) 4:215–218 DOI 10.1007/s11558-009-9058-5