Web Links

Marginal URLs:

• p. 480: Go to http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/downloads.cfm to review the Heritage Foundation's evaluations of the degree of economic freedom in different nations.
• p. 485: To link to an Asian Development Bank analysis of the effects of foreign direct investment on developing nations, go to http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/ADO/2004/part030200.asp.
• p. 491: To learn about the International Monetary Fund's view on its role in international financial crises, go to http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/ib/2001/032601.htm.

• To learn more about Brazil's complicated legal system, go to http://www.law.du.edu/elliot/sfeinle/Overview.htm
• For a review of labor law issues that foreign investors must consider when buying shares in firms in Brazil, go to http://www.fredlaw.com/articles/international/intl_97sp_jlv.html.

The International Monetary Fund

The purpose of this exercise is to evaluate the IMF's role in promoting global economic growth.

Title: International Monetary Fund

Navigation: Go to the home page of the IMF on the Web at http://www.imf.org/, and click on About the IMF at the top of the page.

Application: Read each entry, and then answer the question.

1. Click on the link at the top-middle of the Web page titled Purposes of the IMF. Which of these purposes are most directly related to promoting a higher rate of global economic growth? Are any related more indirectly to this goal?

2. Back up to About the IMF, and click on Surveillance. Based on this discussion, what type of asymmetric information problem does IMF surveillance attempt to address?

3. Back up to About the IMF, and click on Financial Assistance. Which IMF lending "facilities" appear to be aimed at maintaining stability of international flows of funds? Which appear to be longer-term loans similar to those extended by the World Bank?