IMF Conditionality,Government Partisanship,and the Progress of Economic Reforms

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) often seeks to influence countries' domestic public policy via varying levels of conditionality—linking financial support to borrowing governments' commitment to policy reforms. When does extensive conditionality encourage domestic economic reforms and when does it impede them? We argue that, rather than universally benefiting or harming reforms, the effects of stricter IMF conditionality depend on domestic partisan politics. More IMF conditions can pressure left‐wing governments into undertaking more ambitious reforms with little resistance from partisan rivals on the right; under right governments, however, more conditions hinder reform implementation by heightening resistance from the left while simultaneously reducing leaders' ability to win their support through concessions or compromise. Using data on post‐communist IMF programs for the period 1994–2010, we find robust evidence supporting these claims, even after addressing the endogeneity of IMF programs via instrumental variables analysis.     

习近平主席访韩和韩中关系的新里程碑

2014年7月3日习近平主席对韩国进行了国事访问。通过这次在东北亚安全环境急剧变化的情况下进行的访韩,韩中两国建立了"成熟的"战略合作伙伴关系。在这次访韩中,习主席首次提出了韩中关系的"四个坚持"原则。以此为基础,为了在外交和安全领域中实现韩中关系的实质性成熟,双方决定将各种战略对话和高层会谈机制化;在经济领域中决定年内尽早完成韩中自由贸易协定谈判,建立包括金融在内的高度经济合作框架。此外,在加强两国未来青年领导人的交流和搞活公共外交合作等人文交流方面也取得了重大成果。另外,在外交安全领域也给我们留下了韩国和中国为了追求共同利益需要进一步加强相互理解的课题。尤其是从韩国和中国的外交均处于发展之中,以及朝鲜半岛问题正在中美关系和东北亚国际关系这个更大的框架内运作这一点出发,两国都需要发展更加灵活、更为积极的韩中关系。