Oxford Handbook of the International Monetary Fund

Abstract

Abstract The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a pivotal multilateral institution in global economic governance tasked with ensuring monetary stability and preventing financial crises through promoting balanced trade, economic growth, and poverty reduction. IMF research and expertise also play a powerful normative role in shaping the contours of economic policy choices of its 190 member states. Fallout of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic reveal that the IMF sits at a critical moment in its history. On one hand, reaction to these crises has produced an IMF that is more flexible, open to critique and reform, and arguably thus better equipped to meet its global economic governance mandates effectively. However, power within the IMF remains concentrated among advanced economies, hindering trust that the institution treats all its members in an even-handed manner. Resurgent geopolitical tensions, the rise of populist nationalism, and economic imbalances further strain the IMF’s ability to uphold liberal internationalism. Drawing from leading IMF scholars, IMF staff and management, and CSO representatives, the Handbook on the IMF engages with these challenges from a diversity of perspectives and proposes policy recommendations that the IMF should implement to successfully meet the increasingly complex landscape of 21st-century global economic governance.