The IMF in the Balkans: Recent experience

Alexandra Zeitz, St. Antony’s College, Oxford

Speakers: Adam Bennett, St. Antony’s College, Oxford and Robin McConnachie, Oxford Analytica

Chair: Stewart Fleming, St. Antony’s College, Oxford

When the IMF is called in during a time of economic crisis, the programme agreed is often politically contentious. One of the defining questions in the aftermath of the IMF’s intervention is frequently: “did it work?” In late November, PEFM heard from Adam Bennett, formerly of the IMF, about the effectiveness of IMF programmes in a region where the Fund has played a prominent role in recent decades: the Balkans. Robin McConnachie, who has acted as an advisor to governments in the region, contributed his insights into what makes for successful reform programmes. 

How does one capture the impact of an IMF programme? Bennett explained that the Fund itself has grappled with the numerous measurement challenges of evaluating effectiveness. Simple measures comparing indicators before and after an IMF programme neglect the counterfactual of how the country would be faring in the absence of an IMF programme. Comparisons between countries with and without IMF programmes cannot account for the fact that countries with IMF programmes often faced worse conditions than those that received no programme.

The Fund has responded to these measurement concerns by building complex models that attempt to capture the impact of policy interventions. These models, however, can only be as accurate as the assumptions they are built on. For his evaluation of the IMF’s programmes in the Balkans, therefore, Bennett used simple comparisons between those Balkan countries with and without IMF programmes and contrasted countries’ actual performance with the targets set in the programme.

What is needed for EU competitiveness? The view from Croatia

Alexandra Zeitz (Global Economic Governance Programme, University of Oxford)

Speaker: Boris Vujčić, Governor, Croatian National Bank

Chair: Gillian Edgeworth, Wellington Management and St. Antony’s College, Oxford 

What will it take to boost the EU’s competitiveness and firm up a shaky economic recovery? In late November, PEFM hosted Governor Boris Vujčić of the Croatian National Bank, who presented his views on the roadblocks to productivity in the EU and argued for structural reforms to encourage convergence among different European regions and increase competitiveness.

There are many explanations for Europe’s competitiveness woes, particularly for why it lags behind the United States across indicators of productivity. Indeed, Jeffrey Franks’ PEFM presentation in October outlined how the IMF accounts for Europe’s flagging competitiveness.

In his account, Governor Vujčić stressed the importance of the revolution in information and communications technology, which has made huge contributions to private sector productivity in the US, but lagged in Europe. He also highlighted the problem of financing – without well developed equity markets and venture capital funders, young European entrepreneurs often lack the investment to get their ideas off the ground. Europe has also been slow, Governor Vujčić argued, to bring research and expertise from academia into the private sector. While Europe’s universities are well represented on global league tables, transfer of knowledge into business is still lacking.