Geopolitical Lending
Geopolitical Lending

Author: Montse Kobeh

Publisher:

Published: 2024

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This thesis explores the dynamic interplay between U.S. policy priorities and the allocation of International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans to Latin American countries, probing the extent to which geopolitical interests shape financial assistance strategies. At its core, the research investigates whether IMF lending practices serve as an extension of U.S. foreign policy, particularly in the context of promoting economic and political ideologies aligned with American interests. Drawing on a comprehensive review of IMF loan distributions and U.S. policy agendas, the study critically examines the hypothesis that loan allocations are influenced more by political considerations than by the economic needs or reform commitments of recipient countries. The analysis is framed against the backdrop of significant global challenges, including economic recessions, geopolitical conflicts, and shifts in international relations, which further complicate the landscape of international finance and development. By analyzing voting patterns at the United Nations General Assembly, this thesis uncovers the nuanced mechanisms through which political affinity and strategic concessions might sway the direction and conditions of IMF lending. In doing so, it contributes to the broader debate on the politicization of international economic institutions and the implications for national sovereignty and development in the Global South.

IMF Lending and Geopolitics
IMF Lending and Geopolitics

Author: Julien P. M. Reynaud

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 56

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

There is growing awareness that the distribution of IMF facilities may not be influenced only by the economic needs of the borrowers. This paper focuses on the fact that the IMF may favour geopolitically important countries in the distribution of IMF loans, differentiating between concessional and non-concessional facilities. To carry out the empirical analysis, we construct a new database that compiles proxies for geopolitical importance for 107 IMF countries over 1990-2003, focusing on emerging and developing economies. We use a factor analysis to capture the common underlying characteristic of countries' geo-political importance as well as a potential analysis since we also want to account for the geographical situation of the loan recipients. While controlling for economic and political determinants, our results show that geopolitical factors influence notably lending decisions when loans are nonconcessional, whereas results are less robust and in opposite direction for concessional loans. This study provides empirical support to the view that geopolitical considerations are an important factor in shaping IMF lending decisions, potentially affecting the institution's effectiveness and credibility.

Pawned States
Pawned States

Author: Didac Queralt

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2022-08-09

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 0691231524

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

How foreign lending weakens emerging nations In the nineteenth century, many developing countries turned to the credit houses of Europe for sovereign loans to balance their books and weather major fiscal shocks such as war. This reliance on external public finance offered emerging nations endless opportunities to overcome barriers to growth, but it also enabled rulers to bypass critical stages in institution building and political development. Pawned States reveals how easy access to foreign lending at early stages of state building has led to chronic fiscal instability and weakened state capacity in the developing world. Drawing on a wealth of original data to document the rise of cheap overseas credit between 1816 and 1913, Didac Queralt shows how countries in the global periphery obtained these loans by agreeing to “extreme conditionality,” which empowered international investors to take control of local revenue sources in cases of default, and how foreclosure eroded a country’s tax base and caused lasting fiscal disequilibrium. Queralt goes on to combine quantitative analysis of tax performance between 1816 and 2005 with qualitative historical analysis in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, illustrating how overreliance on external capital by local leaders distorts their incentives to expand tax capacity, articulate power-sharing institutions, and strengthen bureaucratic apparatus. Panoramic in scope, Pawned States sheds needed light on how early and easy access to external finance pushes developing nations into trajectories characterized by fragile fiscal institutions and autocratic politics.

Brother, Can You Spare a Billion?
Brother, Can You Spare a Billion?

Author: Daniel McDowell

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016-11-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0190605774

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Conventional wisdom says that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) functions as the de facto international lender of last resort (ILLR) for the global financial system. However, that premise is incomplete. Brother, Can You Spare a Billion? explores how the U.S. has for decades regularly complemented the Fund's ILLR role by selectively providing billions of dollars in emergency loans to foreign economies in crisis. Why would the U.S. ever put national financial resources at risk to "bail out" foreign countries? McDowell argues that the U.S. has been compelled to provide such rescues unilaterally when it believes the IMF's multilateral response is too slow or too small to protect vital U.S. economic interests. Through a combination of historical case studies and statistical analysis, McDowell uncovers the defensive motives behind U.S. decisions to provide global liquidity from the 1960s through the 2008 global financial crisis. Moving beyond conventional wisdom, this book paints a complete picture of how international financial crises have been managed and highlights the unique role the U.S. has played in stabilizing the world economy in troubled times.

Geopolitical Risk on Stock Returns: Evidence from Inter-Korea Geopolitics
Geopolitical Risk on Stock Returns: Evidence from Inter-Korea Geopolitics

Author: Seungho Jung

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2021-10-22

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13: 1557759677

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

We investigate how corporate stock returns respond to geopolitical risk in the case of South Korea, which has experienced large and unpredictable geopolitical swings that originate from North Korea. To do so, a monthly index of geopolitical risk from North Korea (the GPRNK index) is constructed using automated keyword searches in South Korean media. The GPRNK index, designed to capture both upside and downside risk, corroborates that geopolitical risk sharply increases with the occurrence of nuclear tests, missile launches, or military confrontations, and decreases significantly around the times of summit meetings or multilateral talks. Using firm-level data, we find that heightened geopolitical risk reduces stock returns, and that the reductions in stock returns are greater especially for large firms, firms with a higher share of domestic investors, and for firms with a higher ratio of fixed assets to total assets. These results suggest that international portfolio diversification and investment irreversibility are important channels through which geopolitical risk affects stock returns.

Geopolitical Risk, Sustainability and “Cross-Border Spillovers” in Emerging Markets, Volume II
Geopolitical Risk, Sustainability and “Cross-Border Spillovers” in Emerging Markets, Volume II

Author: Michael I. C. Nwogugu

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-01-01

Total Pages: 594

ISBN-13: 3030714195

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Many emerging market countries are bank-based economies and are increasingly affected by geopolitical risks, U.S. dollar dynamics, regulations, preferential trade agreements (PTAs), MNCs (that often function like international organizations), social networks, labor dynamics, cross-border spillovers and the inefficient expansion of formal/informal microfinance. Country risks, informal economies (that account for 20-50 percent of the national economy of many emerging market countries), investor protection, enforcement commitment, compliance costs, sustainability (environmental, social, economic and political sustainability), economic growth, political stability, financial stability, geopolitical risk, social networks, household economics, inequality and international trade outcomes can vary dramatically across many DECs and LDECs due to these phenomena. The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated the many problems inherent in political systems, economic policy and governments’ emergency powers during pandemics/epidemics and economic/financial crisis. This second volume focuses on geopolitical risks that are intertwined with constitutional political economy and labor issues, alongside addressing some of the financial and constitutional crises that occurred in Europe, Asia and the U.S. during 2007-2020. This book provides analysis of complex systems and the preferences and reasoning of state/government and corporate actors in order to develop better artificial intelligence and decision-system models of geopolitical risk, public policy and international capital flows, all of which are increasingly important decision factors for investment managers, boards-of-directors and government officials.

An Overture to Geofinance
An Overture to Geofinance

Author: Pascal M. vander Straeten

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2018-03-20

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 9781984393173

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Geofinance is about a way of seeing the world. As a true introduction, this work aims at commencing a journey that very few have undertaken, namely witnessing the pioneering of a brand new theory that has an interdisciplinary aspect. Indeed, the world of today can no longer be analysed and understood solely from the perspective of finance, economics, political sciences, or geography. This silo mentality is no longer compatible with the complex world in which we are living. We need a holistic approach that builds bridges between various research fields thereby helping understanding the complex nature of a phenomenon. That phenomenon is geofinance. Intuitively, many among you already perceive how geopolitics affect the world of global finance, but also how the realm of international finance is impacting on world events, and their stakeholders, be they governments, businesses, and individuals. This articulate and incisive introductory textbook shepherds practitioners, cognoscenti, scholars, and students through their first encounter with geofinance. It offers a clear bodywork for exploring contemporary power conflicts by illustrating how the world of geopolitics and the realm of global finance are mutually shaping and interacting with each other. The overarching theme of geofinancial structures (contexts) and geofinancial agents (countries, institutions, markets, individuals wielding financial power) is accessible and necessitates no previous understanding of theory or current financial affairs. Throughout the book, case studies including the influence of financial markets on geopolitics, the contagion effects between sovereign and banking risks, the influence of geopolitical black swans on the world of international finance, the impact of geofinance on business, etc. emphasize the multi-faceted nature of the complex relationship between global finance and geopolitics in its broadest sense. Reading this book will provide a deeper and critical understanding of the current world of global finance and facilitate access to higher level course work and essays on geofinance. Both students of finance, geography, international relations, and mainstream readers alike will find this book an essential stepping-stone to a fuller understanding of contemporary financially driven conflicts.

Historical Evolution of the International Monetary System
Historical Evolution of the International Monetary System

Author: Kyle Inan

Publisher: Kyle Inan

Published: 2020-11-21

Total Pages: 29

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book purports to examine in-depth the historical evolution of the International Monetary System starting with the “Classical Gold Standard System” that was adopted by various governments around the world between the years of 1880-1914. Following the inception of the “Inter-war Period” which took place between 1918-1939, the Classical Gold Standard System was abandoned. It was only after the post-WWII period that this standard was restored only for a short-period of time until the emergence of the “Bretton Woods System” between 1944-1971 which completely replaced the gold standard system with the U.S. dollar. It is also within the scope of this book to analyze the emerging monetary policy trends following the establishment of the Bretton Woods System that brought about the creation of the International Monetary Fund (the IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) to assist member countries with restoring their balance-of-payments equilibrium through the enactment of fixed exchange rates currency regime and through credit lending to poor countries in need.

Geofinance between Political and Financial Geographies
Geofinance between Political and Financial Geographies

Author: Silvia Grandi

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2019-12-27

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1789903858

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This edited collection explores the boundaries between political and financial geographies, focusing on the linkages between the changing strategies, policies and institutions of the state. It also investigates banks and other financial institutions affected by both state policies and a globalizing financial system, and the financial resources available to firms as well as households. In so doing, the book highlights how an empirical focus on the semi-periphery of the financial system may generate new perspectives on the entanglement between (geo) politics and finance.