The response of other lenders to the IMF

Until the late 1980s, it was a stylized fact that when a country adopted an IMF program, additional loans from non-IMF sources would be triggered. Subsequent empirical research cast doubt on this catalytic effect; a country's past involvement with the IMF appeared to be negatively correlated with new lending. This paper examines directly the response of lenders to the presence of IMF conditional agreements in developing countries in the 1973-89 period. While total lending does appear to increase in response to the presence of some IMF agreements, the effect varies over time, and across recipients and lenders.