IMF program participation is associated with lower growth and higher inequality

Evidence

Studies have shown that economic growth is more likely to drop during an IMF program and after its completion, while social inequality increases. Faced with this reality leftist governments in countries such as Brazil abandoned IMF conditionality and adopted much more heterodox policy mixes. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 958

Categorization

• XREF: Directly connects to the IMF conditionality critique that runs through Mattei and the broader austerity literature; also echoes the anti-IMF findings in other structural adjustment histories. — connects to: Expansionary fiscal contraction theory emerged despite contradictory IMF field evidence — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 446; Structural adjustment programs exported expansionary austerity to the developing world with poor results — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 439; Austerity ignores the externality costs of top-income decisions on lower-income people — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 62
• QUESTION: Which specific studies document growth drops during and after IMF programs? Worth chasing the underlying citations for a rigorous chapter.

Broader Connections

• Structural adjustment programs exported expansionary austerity to the developing world with poor results #corroborates (0.85) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 439
• Austerity ignores the externality costs of top-income decisions on lower-income people #qualifies (0.75) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 62