This book analyzes the determinants of national policy toward the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) in the course of a credit arrangement. It examines why national governments decide to
enter into a credit arrangement with the IMF and under what circumstances they implement the
conditions attached to such credit. Based on a political economy framework various hypotheses
on the determinants of national policy toward the IMF are elaborated. These include the
influence of political and economic factors and also consider the behavior of the IMF. The
author validates the hypotheses by analyzing the policy of Brazil between 1993 and 2005 as
well as the policy of Argentina between 1991 and 2001. In each country five actual or
potential credit arrangements are examined.
