IMF ‘doves’ versus German ‘hawks’? The Fund and Europe’s politics of austerity

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had a major role in promoting ‘sound’ economic policies. But as Ben Clift wrote, there have been important evolutions in the IMF’s economic ideas since the global financial and Eurozone crises. The IMF was now often at odds with some European leaders over key issues, undermining the notion that economic policy can be viewed as a purely technocratic and scientific undertaking, and reducing the IMF’s impact on policy in Europe.

The author's arguments are expanded in a book called The IMF and the Politics of Austerity in the Wake of the Global Financial Crisis (OUP, 2018)

• Primary Source

IMF: Publications: Regional Economic Outlook: Europe Hitting Its Stride, November 2017 http://www.imf.org/en/Publications/REO/EU/Issues/2017/11/06/Eurreo1117

LSE European Institute: EuroppBlog, 04.04.18: Greece’s clean exit: Politics vs economics (et al) http://www.europeansources.info/record/greeces-clean-exit-politics-vs-economics/

LSE European Institute: EuroppBlog, 07.08.17: Rethinking austerity? The IMF and social safeguards http://www.europeansources.info/record/rethinking-austerity-the-imf-and-social-safeguards/

Intereconomics Vol.52, No.2, March-April 2017: The Power of Two: Inclusive Growth and the IMF http://www.europeansources.info/record/the-power-of-two-inclusive-growth-and-the-imf/

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