Date of Award

Spring 5-10-2025

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Open-Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Global Policy

First Committee Advisor

Nicholas Micinski

Second Committee Member

Kristin Vekasi

Third Committee Member

Kevin Roberge

Abstract

What has been the experience of women in countries affected by violent conflict after state compliance with IMF prescriptions? The informal expansion of the International Monetary Fund’s mandates in the 1980s, through its “Structural Adjustment Program” requirements, aimed to address recurring financial crises and loan defaults in the Global South. These lending agreements have been the subject of extensive inquiry over the past three decades. Previous research has investigated the impact of IMF conditionality on various economic outcomes across participating countries. More recent analyses have explored the distributional implications of conditionality policies, including those along gender lines. Little attention, however, has been paid to testing the impact of IMF conditionality for post-conflict states, which requires an increase in peace-related expenditures and runs counter to the prescribed austerity measures from international financial institutions. This thesis proposes a new framework for understanding the gendered impacts of IMF conditionality for post-conflict states, building upon the phases of post-conflict reconstruction outlined by Dr. Graciana Del Castillo and the posited linkages between austerity and living standards along gendered lines.

I use two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimation with instrumental variables (IV) to examine the relationship between IMF conditionality and social spending. I then utilize fixed-effects linear regressions with robust clustering to explore the relationship between government social spending and development outcomes along gendered lines. The findings revealed that IMF conditionality has a mixed but overall negative impact on social spending changes, with a larger decrease in spending in post-conflict states than in non-conflict states. In the second analysis, I found that changes in social expenditures have an adverse impact on the gendered quality of life in post-conflict states compared to non-conflict states, particularly affecting life expectancy, labor force participation, and tertiary enrollment, and exhibiting substantial gender disparities.

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