TY  - JOUR
AU  - Wei,Shang-Jin
AU  - Zhang,Zhiwei
TI  - Do External Interventions Work? The Case of Trade Reform Conditions in IMF Supported Programs
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12667
PY  - 2006
Y2  - November 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12667
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12667.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Shang-Jin Wei
Graduate School of Business
Columbia University
Uris Hall 619
3022 Broadway
New York, NY 10027-6902
Tel: 212/854-9139
E-Mail: shangjin.wei@columbia.edu

Zhiwei Zhang
International Monetary Fund
Research Department
700 19th Street NW
Washington, DC 20431 USA
E-Mail: zzhang@hkma.gov.hk
AB  - Trade reform conditions are common in IMF supported programs. Of the 99 countries that had IMF programs during 1993-2003, 77 had conditions on trade reforms in their programs. Since the WTO has not been found especially effective in promoting trade openness for most developing countries, it is of great interest to see if the IMF has been more effective as it combines carrots and sticks not available to the WTO. Yet, the effectiveness of trade conditions in IMF programs has not been systematically studied. Using a unique dataset, this paper provides such an assessment. It finds that trade conditions are associated with an increase in trade openness on average, but the effect comes mostly from countries that, by some measure, have a high degree of "willingness to reform."
ER  -