Work

The Politics of Hard Choices: IMF Programs and Government Spending

Year: 2006

Type: article

Abstract: A central component of International Monetary Fund (IMF) programs is reducing government budget deficits. We ask how domestic political considerations shape the distribution of cuts made by governments in IMF programs. Our central finding is that IMF programs shrink the role played by domestic politics. While democracies allocate larger shares of their budgets to public services in the absence of IMF programs, the difference between democracies and nondemocracies disappears under IMF programs. This result has important implications for our understanding of government spending priorities under different resource constraints.

Source: International Organization

DOI: 10.1017/s0020818306060334

Authors: Irfan Nooruddin, Joel W. Simmons

Institutions: Georgetown University, The Ohio State University, University of Michigan

Language: English

Topic: Fiscal Policies and Political Economy

Subfield: Economics and Econometrics

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W2102941573

FWCI: 16.05

Cites: 27

Cited by: 239

Related to: 10