This is a collection of essays offering comparative analysis of the divergent experiences of developing countries responding to economic crises by adopting macroeconomic stabilization and structural adjustment policies.

This study of macroeconomic policy in Korea is a collaborative venture between the Korea Development Institute and the Harvard Institute for International Development. It was designed to update the previous joint study of Korea's modernization. This volume provides an analytic history of Korean macroeconomic policy over the last two decades that integrates political as well as economic analysis. The book analyzes fiscal, monetary, financial, and labor-market policy, savings behavior, and the balance of payments, and draws conclusions for policy reform in other developing countries.

Deep fiscal reform will significantly help Zimbabwe achieve a sustainable debt path, a decline in interest rates paid on public debt and a recovery of private consumption and investment.

When are policy makers willing to make costly adjustments to their macroeconomic policies to mitigate balance-of-payments problems? Which types of adjustment strategies do they choose? Under what circumstances do they delay reform, and when are such delays likely to result in financial crises? To answer these questions, this book examines how macroeconomic policy adjustments affect individual voters in financially open economies and argues that the anticipation of these distributional effects influences policy makers' decisions about the timing and the type of reform. Empirically, the book combines analyses of cross-national survey data of voters' and firms' policy evaluations with comparative case studies of national policy responses to the Asian financial crisis of 1997/8 and the recent global financial crisis in Eastern Europe. The book shows that variation in policy makers' willingness to implement reform can be traced back to differences in the vulnerability profiles of their countries' electorates.

This collection of survey articles sheds light on crucial questions in the field of monetary, financial and macroeconomic policy. Applies rigorous economic theory and empirical analysis to important practical policy issues. Considers the role of the financial sector in economic development. Looks at why financial crises occur and how they can be avoided. Discusses the relationship between macroeconomic adjustment and poverty. Asks if low-inflation rate regimes are at risk from the ‘zero bound’ to nominal interest rates. Provides accessible overviews of recent research into these questions.

This volume, edited by Mohsin S. Khan, Peter J. Montiel, and Nadeem U. Haque, examines recent IMF-developed empirical macroeconomic models dealing with adjustment and stabilization policies in developing countries. Some models are relevant for specific countries, and others relate to groups of developing countries.