scholarly journals Weighted voting on the IMF Managing Director

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-244
Author(s):  
Alexander Mayer ◽  
Stefan Napel
Keyword(s):  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
Executive Director ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Plurality Rule ◽  
Executive Directors ◽  
Voting Rules ◽  
Weighted Voting ◽  
To Come ◽  
A Priori Distribution ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

Abstract Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund elect the Fund’s Managing Director from a shortlist of three candidates; financial quotas of IMF members define the respective numbers of votes. The implied a priori distribution of success (preference satisfaction) is compared across different electoral procedures. The USA’s Executive Director can expect to come closer to its top preference under plurality rule than for pairwise majority comparisons or plurality with a runoff; opposite applies to everybody else. Differences of US success between voting rules dominate the within-rule differences between most other Directors, and much of the latest reform of quotas.

Pressures to adjust balance of payments disequilibria: an analysis of the powers of the International Monetary Fund

1976 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frieder Roessler
Keyword(s):  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
Balance Of Payments ◽  
Executive Directors ◽  
Financial Pressure ◽  
New Instruments ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

In view of recent proposals to grant the International Monetary Fund new instruments to press countries to adjust balance of payments disequilibria, the question arises of the efficacy of such means of pressure. An analysis of the Fund's power shows, inter alia, that conditions attached to currency purchases by deficit countries can only influence the techniques of adjustment but not the length of the adjustment period, that it is normally not possible for the Fund to expose individual surplus countries to inflationary or expansionary pressures, that the scarce currency clause is unworkable in present monetary conditions, and that the Fund's system of charges and remunerations cannot be used to exert financial pressure on countries in imbalance. The general avoidance of sanctions by the Fund's Executive Directors suggests that it would only be useful to make additional pressures available to the Fund, as contemplated by the Committee of Twenty, if the authority to take decisions on sanctions were transferred to a separate judicial or quasi-judicial body.

International Monetary Fund

1952 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 644-646
Keyword(s):  
Exchange Rates ◽  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
Annual Report ◽  
Fiscal Year ◽  
Executive Directors ◽  
The Past ◽  
Board Of Governors ◽  
The World ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

The Annual Report of the Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1952 was presented to the Board of Governors by its chairman (Rooth) on June 24, 1952. The report indicated that, despite a remarkable growth in production and one widespread adjustment of exchange rates over the previous seven years, international payments were still far from having attained a state of balance and exchange difficulties and restrictions existed again over large parts of the world, for countries constituting a large part of the world had followed policies aimed at achieving higher levels of consumption and investment than could be covered out of real resources available. This had resulted in a situation of inflationary pressures that in certain countries had been aggravated by rearmament programs, pressures which created excessive demands for imports and reduced the quantities of goods available for export. In this situation the use of exchange restrictions and quantitative import controls, frequently of a discriminatory nature, seemed inevitable to many countries; and during the past year there had been a tendency to extend and intensify these restrictions and controls.

International Monetary Fund

1956 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 636-639
Keyword(s):  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Government ◽  
Effective Control ◽  
Fiscal Year ◽  
Fiscal Policies ◽  
Executive Directors ◽  
Board Of Governors ◽  
The International Monetary Fund ◽  
Relevant Factors

The Annual Report of the Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1956 was transmitted to the Chairman of the Board of Governors on June 29, 1956. The world payments situation had improved during the year under review, the report stated; restrictions had been further relaxed, the transferability of important currencies had been extended, and discrimination, especially that resulting from bilateral arrangements, had had less influence on the direction of trade. Progress in extending multilateral trade and payments had thus been maintained, although during the year there had been no addition to the list of Fund members which had established formal convertibility of their currencies. While in general postwar investment programs had brought good returns, inflationary pressures were still strong in a number of countries, the report stated, and they had not always been kept under effective control. The report noted with satisfaction a greater readiness to take corrective or preventive measures, and that the value of flexible monetary and fiscal policies as a major means of achieving and maintaining stability was increasingly recognized. In assessing the future development of the generally encouraging world payments situation, the report cited the following relevant factors which because of their tendency to change from year to year made accurate prediction difficult: 1) the important part played in the international balance of payments by the expenditures abroad of the United States government; 2) the fact that countries whose export trade consisted mainly of primary products were especially subject to variations in export earnings; and 3) the problem of disposing of surpluses of agricultural products.

International Monetary Fund

1959 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 316-320 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Public Investment ◽  
Fiscal Year ◽  
Executive Directors ◽  
Money Markets ◽  
Board Of Governors ◽  
Economic Climate ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

The Annual Report of the Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1958, was transmitted to the Chairman of the Board of Governors on July 25, 1958. In its discussion of the economic climate of 1957–1958, the report noted that at the beginning of 1957, the world economy was still dominated by boom conditions generated by an intense world-wide wave of private and public investment which was reflected in a large demand for capital. Most of the payments problems that called for treatment during the first three-quarters of the year had their origin in the inflationary methods which were often used to satisfy this demand, and there was a dearth of loanable funds and a growing tension in the money markets. The financial problems that presented themselves in this situation were greatly intensified early in 1957 by the temporary effects of the tensions that arose in connection with the Suez events and, later in the year, by speculative movements against certain European currencies.

International Monetary Fund

1963 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 500-504 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
Current Account ◽  
Balance Of Payments ◽  
Executive Directors ◽  
Board Of Governors ◽  
The International Monetary Fund ◽  
Opening Address ◽  
The Current Account

The seventeenth annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was held in Washington, D.C., from September 17 through September 21, 1962, under the chairmanship of Mr. Ahmed Zaki Saad, Governor for Saudi Arabia. In his opening address, Mr. Per Jacobsson, Managing Director of IMF, commented on the relation of the Fund's assistance to capital transactions. He remarked that although the Fund's resources had been used in situations involving capital transfers, there had been some uncertainty as to the extent to which, or the circumstances in which, the Fund's resources could be used for helping to meet those deficits in the balance of payments of members that went beyond the current account and were attributable in whole or in part to capital transfers. By a decision of July 1961 the Executive Directors were able to eliminate any doubt which had not already been dissipated by the practice of the Fund that the Fund's resources could be used to alleviate pressures brought about by capital transfers, in accordance with the criteria of Article VI and other relevant provisions of the Fund Agreement. Thus, if a country facing a disequilibrating outflow of capital were to turn to the Fund for assistance, one of the criteria which the Fund would apply would be to satisfy itself that the appropriate measures were being taken to overcome the balance of payments difficulties, and that the assistance provided by the Fund would be repaid at the earliest opportunity, and in any event not later than three to five years after the drawing.

International Monetary Fund

1964 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 855-859 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
Annual Report ◽  
Fiscal Year ◽  
Executive Directors ◽  
Executive Board ◽  
Board Of Governors ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

On July 2, 1964, the Chairman of the Executive Board, Pierre-Paul Schweitzer, transmitted to the Board of Governors the nineteenth annual report of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Directors for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1964.

International Monetary Fund

1956 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-206
Keyword(s):  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
Balance Of Payments ◽  
Equal Treatment ◽  
Fiscal Year ◽  
Executive Directors ◽  
Industrial Countries ◽  
Board Of Governors ◽  
Import Restrictions ◽  
Different Sources ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

The Annual Report of the Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1955 was transmitted to the Chairman of the Board of Governors on July 1, 1955. The report noted that during the period under review the trend of the previous fiscal year toward the relaxation of restrictions imposed for balance of payments reasons on imports, on currency transfers, and on dealings in foreign exchange had continued, resulting in a considerable improvement in international financial relations. The European industrial countries, in particular, because of a continuance of favorable payments balances had been able to reduce their use of restrictions, and in a few cases practically eliminate them. It was pointed out in the report that even the European countries which had experienced minor setbacks in their balance of payments in 1954 and 1955 had not increased their import restrictions. The report stated that the point had probably been reached at which obstacles to any further removal of import restrictions in Europe were due as much to a wish for protecting individual industries as to payments difficulties. In countries outside Europe, the relaxation of import restrictions was an important factor in the expansion of imports in many primary producing countries in 1954. However, because of the weakening of their reserves, several primary producing countries, especially Australia and Thailand, had to increase their import restrictions in the latter part of 1954. In addition to the reduction in the use of such restrictions, the tendency toward giving more equal treatment to imports from different sources or paid for in different currencies was noted in the report as another encouraging factor in the international financial situation.

Weighted Voting in International Organizations

1954 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 484-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth McIntyre
Keyword(s):  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Crucial Issue ◽  
Weighted Voting ◽  
International Bank ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

The idea of weighted voting is not new. In 1849 Sir George Cornewall Lewis stated that “history affords instances in which opinions have been weighed instead of counted”, and the subsequent unfolding of a system which finds notable contemporary expression in the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Monetary Fund has seen various manifestations. While it would be extravagant to assert that weighted voting is a crucial issue of the present day, or even a hotly-contested one, its potentialities as a means toward more effective international procedure merit discussion.

Der Aufschwung des Katastrophen-Kapitalismus

2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (143) ◽  
pp. 177-183
Author(s):  
Naomi Klein
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disaster ◽  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
Bush Administration ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

Fitting to its doctrine of preventiv war, the Bush Administration founded a bureau of reconstruction, designing reconstruction plans for countries which are still not destroyed. Reconstruction after war or after a “natural disaster” developed to a profitable branch of capitalist investment. Also the possibilities to change basic political and economic structures are high and they are widely used by the US-government and institutions like the International Monetary Fund.

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