Case Study (International Financial
Institutions)
Instructor
Ito Takatoshi
Schedule
Winter Semester;Wed; Time slot #6
Description
The case study will focus on the changing roles of the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank, since
the Asian currency crisis of 1997-98. After the Asian currency crisis,
the IMF was expected to develop crisis prevention and management. Once
many emerging market economies have adopted managed float, and prudent
macroeconomic policies, it has become less likely for them to suffer a
crisis. Is it the success of IMF that the crisis is now less likely to
occur?
Less crisis lending meant less revenue for the IMF—this is forcing
the IMF to restructure (downsize). Could the IMF refocus on its core businesses?
Since 2003, the global imbalances problem—large current account
deficits of the US, large current account surpluses of China, Asian countries,
oil-producing nations—has become a major issues for advanced nations
and IMF. The IMF conducted “multilateral surveillance.” But,
could IMF determine which currency is over- or under-valued by how much?
The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have been active in lending
to middle-income emerging-market countries. However, poverty persists
in many less-developed emerging markets. Should their business model be
modified?
Groups will be formed according to students’ interest.
Prerequisites (strongly recommended): (Intermediate) Microeconomics and
Macroeconomics, and (basic) econometrics
Course materials
Evaluation
Participation to discussion and a final report