The IMF and Global Financial Crises: Phoenix Rising?

Joseph P. Joyce

Nov 2012 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

The IMF's response to the global crisis of 2008–9 marked a significant change from its past policies. The Fund provided relatively large amounts of credit quickly with limited conditions and accepted the use of capital controls. This book traces the evolution of the IMF's actions to promote international financial stability from the Bretton Woods era through the most recent crisis. The analysis includes an examination of the IMF's crisis management activities during the debt crisis of the 1980s, the upheavals in emerging markets in the 1990s and early 2000s, and the ongoing European crisis. The dominant influence of the United States and other advanced economies in the governance of the IMF is also described, and the replacement of the G7 nations by the more inclusive G20, which have promised to give the IMF a role in their mutual assessment of policies while undertaking reforms of the IMF's governance.

About the author

Joseph P. Joyce is a Professor of Economics at Wellesley College and serves as the faculty director of the Madeleine Korbel Institute for Global Affairs. Professor Joyce's research deals with issues in financial globalization, and he has published articles in many journals, including the Journal of International Money and Finance, the Open Economies Review, the Review of International Economics, the Journal of Development Economics and Economics and Politics. He is a member of the editorial board of the Review of International Organizations. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Boston University.