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Policy dialogue between multilateral institutions and developing countries

  • Bretton Woods Institutions
  • Published:
Intereconomics

Abstract

The lending criteria applied by the IMF and the World Bank have been converging for some time. Considering also that since the floating of exchange rates in the early seventies the IMF seems to have lost in importance as a monetary institution, debate is growing on the question of whether the Fund needs to correct its policy course, to be assigned new tasks by its member countries or even to be amalgamated with the World Bank into one efficient development aid institution.

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References

  1. The World Bank group also comprises the affiliates: (1) International Development Association (IDA)—the “window for soft credit” of the World Bank for the poorer developing countries. The funds deployed by the IDA stem in the main from capital subscriptions, general replenishment rounds by the industrialized countries and profit margins of the IBRD; (2) the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which mobilizes domestic and foreign capital to promote the private sector in the developing countries; (3) the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) founded in 1988, whose special task is to promote direct investments in developing countries by removing non-commercial investment constraints (e.g. the lack of investment guarantees for capital investment). A review of the history and tasks of the IMF and the World Bank is provided in the special publication of the Deutsche Bundesbank No. 3: Internationale Organisationen und Abkommen im Bereich von Währung und Wirtschaft, Frankfurt/M. 1986. Specifically for the function and credit policy of the World Bank, see Bettina Hürni: Die Weltbank. Funktion und Kreditvergabepolitik nach 1970, Diessenhofen 1980. On the problem of multilateral warranty for capital investments, cf. Manfred Holthus, Dietrich Kebschull, Karl-Wolfgang Menck: Multilateral Investment Insurance and Private Investment in the Third World, Hamburg 1984.

  2. See the statement by Manfred Holthus for the Hamburg Institute for Economic Research (HWWA) in the public hearing of experts on: Einfluß der von der Weltbank und dem Internationalen Währungsfonds geforderten Anpassungsprogramme auf die entwicklungspolitische Zusammenarbeit, Deutscher Bundestag, 10. Wahlperiode, Protokoll der 78. Sitzung des Ausschusses für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit vom 5. Nov. 1986,-714-2450-, p. 73.

  3. On these questions cf. George M. von Fürstenburg: Die zänkischen Schwestern, in: FAZ of 23 Sept. 1989, No. 221, p. 13; Catherine Gwin, Richard E. Feinberg et al.: Pulling Together: The International Monetary Fund in a Multipolar World, Overseas Development Council, 1989. The IMF Survey of 25 Sept. 1989 provides a summary on p. 277 ff. (“Fund Needs New Mandate From Members…”). A critical view is put forward by the Managing Director of the IMF, Michel Camdessus, in a paper dated 14 Sept. 1989, published ibid., p.274 ff.

  4. See: International Monetary Fund and Hamburg Institute for Economic Research (HWWA): Economic Policy Coordination. Proceedings of an International seminar held in Hamburg, moderated by Wilfried Guth, Washington D.C. 1988.

  5. Cf. Bettina Hürni, op. cit. (Note 1), Die Weltbank. Funktion und Kreditvergabepolitik nach 1970, Diessenhofen 1980. On the problem of multilateral warranty for capital investments, p. 19.

  6. For example in: The realities of interdependence, in: Finance & Development, March 1984, p. 28.

  7. As for example Roland Vaubel: Von der normativen zu einer positiven Theorie der internationalen Organisation, in: Herbert Giersch: Probleme und Perspektiven der weltwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, Schriften des Vereins für Socialpolitik, NF, Vol. 148, Berlin 1985, p. 414.

  8. Cf. Bruno S. Frey: Internationale Politische Ökonomie, Munich 1985, p. 140 ff.

  9. Cf. Otto G. Mayer: Development without Miracles: The World Bank after Forty Years, in: INTERECONOMICS, Vol. 19 (1984), No. 4, p. 167 ff.

  10. See Manfred Feldsieper: Entwicklungstheorie, Entwicklungspolitik und Politikdialog—Einige Anmerkungen zu den Auswirkungen einer dreißigjährigen Politikver(w)irrung, in: Hans-Rimbert Hemmer, Jürgen Schröder: Außenwirtschaft, Festschrift Klaus Rose zum 60. Geburtstag, Göttingen 1988, p. 274 ff.

  11. The following is taken from excerpts from the text of the hearing of Manfred Holthus, op. cit. (Note 2), Dietrich Kebschull, Karl-Wolfgang Menck: Multilateral Investment Insurance and Private Investment in the Third World, Hamburg 1984, p. 76 ff.

  12. Cf. Peter B. Kenen: The Use of IMF Credit, Reprints in international Finance, No. 25, December 1989, p. 69 ff.

  13. On this see C. David Finch: The IMF: The Record and the Prospect. Essays in International Finance, No. 175, September 1989, p. 21 ff.

  14. According to Peter B. Kenen, op. cit. (Note 14), The Use of IMF Credit, Reprints in international Finance, No. 25, December 1989, p. 69.

  15. On the critique see, for instance Helmut Walter: Die Auflagenpolitik des Internationalen Währungsfonds, in: Hans-Rimbert Hemmer, Jürgen Schröder: Außenwirtschaft, op. cit. (Note 12), Außenwirtschaft, Festschrift Klaus Rose zum 60. Geburtstag, Göttingen 1988, p. 245 ff.; and Harald Sander: Neostrukturalistische Makroökonomik für halbindustrialisierte Entwicklungsländer. Kritik der IWF Stabilisierungstheorie, in: Jahrbuch für Sozialwissenschaft, Vol. 40 (1989), No. 2, p. 202 ff.

  16. Mentioned in John Williamson (ed.): IMF Conditionality, Washington 1983, pp. 59–77.

  17. Cf. Otto G. Mayer: Sündenbock IWF, in: Wirtschaftsdienst, Vol. 68 (1988), No. 9, p. 440.

  18. On this problem, see the publications of Manfred Holthus and Rasul Shams, HWWA Institute, as part of the DFG special research field “Interessengruppen und Anpassungskonflikte in Entwicklungsländern”, in particular the case studies by Rasul Shams: Türkei, Hamburg 1989; Mauritius, Hamburg 1989; and Adjustment Constraints in Developing Countries. A Comparative Study, in: INTERECONOMICS, Vol. 24 (1989), No. 2, p. 71 ff.

  19. Cf. C. David Finch, op. cit (Note 15) The IMF: The Record and the Prospect, Essays in International Finance, No. 175, September 1989, p. 31 ff.

  20. Cf. Hiroyuki Hino: IMF-World Bank collaboration, in: Finance & Development, September 1986, p. 10 ff.

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  1. Hamburg Institute for Economic Research (HWWA), Hamburg, West Germany

    Otto G. Mayer

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Mayer, O.G. Policy dialogue between multilateral institutions and developing countries. Intereconomics 25, 163–170 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02926165

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