The effects of IMF conditional programs on the unemployment rate

in European Journal of Political Economy (2022)

The fundamental mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is to ensure global financial stability and to assist countries in economic turmoil. Although there is a consensus that IMF-supported ... [more ▼]

The fundamental mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is to ensure global financial stability and to assist countries in economic turmoil. Although there is a consensus that IMF-supported programs can have a direct effect on the labor market of recipient countries, it remains unclear how IMF participation decision and conditionalities attached to IMF loans can affect the unemployment rate of borrowing countries. Using a world sample of countries from 1980 to 2014, we investigate how lending conditional programs of the IMF affect the unemployment rate. Our analyses account for the selection bias related to, first, the IMF participation decision and, second, the conditions included within the program. We show that IMF program participation significantly increases the unemployment rate of recipient countries. Once we control for the number of conditions, however, we find that only IMF conditions have a detrimental and highly significant effect on the unemployment rate. There is evidence that the adverse short-run effect of IMF conditions holds robust in the long-run. Disaggregating IMF conditionality by issue area, we find adverse effects on the unemployment rate for four policy areas: labor market deregulation, reforms requiring privatization of state-owned enterprises, external sector reforms stipulating trade and capital account liberalization, and fiscal policy reforms that restrain government expenditure. Our initial results are found to be robust across alternative empirical specifications. [less ▲]

The effects of IMF programs on income inequality: a semi-parametric treatment effects approach

in International Journal of Development Issues (2022)

Purpose This paper aims to provide new insights regarding the impact of International Monetary Fund (IMF) programs on income inequality. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a novel methodological ... [more ▼]

Purpose This paper aims to provide new insights regarding the impact of International Monetary Fund (IMF) programs on income inequality. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a novel methodological approach proposed by Acemoglu et al. (2019), using (1) the regression adjustment, (2) the inverse probability weighting and (3) the doubly robust estimator, which combines (1) and (2), and a sample of annual data for 135 developing countries over the time period 1970 to 2015. Findings The findings show that IMF programs are associated with greater income inequality for up to five years. By differentiating the effect of IMF programs, the authors find that only IMF non-concessional programs have a significant detrimental effect on income inequality, while IMF concessional programs do not have a consistent effect on income inequality. In addition, the authors find that only IMF programs with a higher number of conditions have a detrimental and statistically significant effect on income inequality, compared to IMF programs with a smaller number of conditions, where their effect on income inequality is found to be insignificant. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the analysis developed in this paper contributes to the existing literature by applying the most methodologically sound identification strategy, which does not rely on the linearity assumption, the selection of instruments or matching variables and additionally takes into account the selection bias related to IMF program participation. [less ▲]

The effect of financial fragility on employment

in Economic Modelling (2021)

Financial fragility increases economic uncertainty and restricts credit to firms, leading to lower economic growth and employment. Despite voluminous research on the relation between financial fragility ... [more ▼]

Financial fragility increases economic uncertainty and restricts credit to firms, leading to lower economic growth and employment. Despite voluminous research on the relation between financial fragility and growth, the effect of financial fragility on employment is understudied. Using a global panel for the period 1998–2017, we identify a negative effect of financial fragility on employment, even after accounting for unobserved country heterogeneity. The impact of financial fragility is stronger in the post-crisis period and in more rigid labor markets, and the magnitude of the effect is higher in developing/emerging economies than in developed countries. Nevertheless, this negative effect can be mitigated in countries with a higher level of financial market development. Our results are robust to the use of several robustness tests, including different measures of financial fragility and an instrumental variables approach. [less ▲]