The politics behind the economics of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank will be explored in a conference being held Friday-Sunday, April 25-27, at Yale.
The event, titled "The Impact of Globalization on the Nation-State from Above: The International Monetary Fund and The World Bank," was organized by Gustav Ranis, director of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies (YCIAS) and the Frank Altschul Professor of International Economics; and James Vreeland, assistant professor of political science and director of undergraduate studies in international studies. It is sponsored by The Carnegie Corporation of New York grant on "Globalization and Self-Determination" to YCIAS and the Coca-Cola World Fund at Yale.
For decades scholars have studied the economic determinants and effects of programs sponsored by the Bretton Woods institutions -- the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, say the organizers. However, much less systematic attention was paid to political factors, they note, adding that research on the political economy of the Bretton Woods institutions is now at the frontier.
This conference is extremely relevant at this particular time in terms of relations between the international financial institutions and nation-states in the south, says Ranis, who worked for the Bretton Woods Commission headed by Paul Volcker and the Center for Strategic and International Studies' task force on multilateral development banks and was a former assistant administrator of the Agency for International Development in the U.S. Department of State.
Vreeland, author of the just-published book "The IMF and Economic Development of March 2003," holds that IMF programs hurt economic growth and redistribute income upward. He contends that by bringing in the IMF, governments gain political leverage -- via conditionality -- to push through unpopular policies.
Among the questions that will be explored by conference participants are: What are the objectives of the Bretton Woods institutions and to whom are they accountable? Do political factors influence lending decisions? What are the effects of the Bretton Woods institutions on national sovereignty? And: What has become of the "Washington Consensus"?
The conference will bring together scholars working on the cutting edge of research in this area including: Nancy Birdsall of the Center for Global Development, David Dollar of the World Bank, William Easterly of New York University, Jeffry Frieden of Harvard University, Allan Meltzer of Carnegie Mellon University, Paul Mosley of the University of Sheffield, Kenneth Rogoff of the IMF, Frances Stewart of Oxford University and Ernesto Zedillo, director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place at Luce Hall, 31 Hillhouse Ave. For a conference agenda or for more information about the Carnegie Globalization and Self-Determination program, visit the website at www.yale.edu/ycias/globalization/index.html.
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