Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Compliance With Imf Austerity: Labor Rights, Protest, And Repression, Brendan Skip Mark

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation explores the domestic consequences of International Monetary Fund (IMF) program lending. It argues that when governments implement austerity reforms attached to IMF loans it increases human rights violations and violence in borrower governments. A new measure of IMF compliance is developed and used to explore the consequences of IMF lending in the 21st century. Past research exploring IMF lending consequences has assumed compliance away. While IMF program lending is largely seen as a failure there is significant debate about the causes of failure. Human rights scholars have argued that austerity policies impose significant hardships on citizens in borrower …