Syracuse University SURFACE Dissertations - ALL SURFACE June 2014 Drivers of Change: Explaining IMF Low Income Country Reform in the Post Washington Consensus Mark Rittenhouse Hibben Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/etd Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Hibben, Mark Rittenhouse, "Drivers of Change: Explaining IMF Low Income Country Reform in the Post Washington Consensus" (2014). Dissertations - ALL. 49. https://surface.syr.edu/etd/49 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the SURFACE at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations - ALL by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Abstract Through use of rationalist, constructivist, and historical structural theory, this study of IMF Low Income Country (LIC) policy change from 1996 to 2010 identifies potential causal variables and mechanisms that drive contemporary reform in the institution toward its poorest member states. Patterns uncovered through principal-agent analysis suggest that coalition formation between at least two actors is a necessary condition for LIC policy reform. Principal-agent analysis also establishes that discontinuity among powerful states gives IMF management and staff greater openings to initiate or block reform efforts. Constructivist analysis assesses if shifts in thinking among IMF insiders and the broader epistemic community of development economists have causal effect on LIC policy reform. Evidence gathered through process tracing methods shows that reform occurred after economic ideas that underwrote previous policy positions lost legitimacy among influential elites within and outside the IMF. Thus while IMF staff self -identify as rational technocrats, they are also driven by concerns of pursuing what the broader elite community deems as appropriate policy choices.