The International Monetary Funds intervention in education systems and its impact on childrens chances of completing school

TL;DR

This paper examines how IMF interventions, especially education policies, influence children's likelihood of completing school, revealing a generally small but significant negative impact in low and middle-income countries.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of IMF education policies within programs and their specific effects on children's educational attainment.

Findings

IMF education policies have a small, statistically insignificant negative effect on school completion.

IMF programs overall reduce children's chances of completing school by six percentage points.

Analysis highlights heterogeneity in effects across different IMF programs and countries.

Abstract

Enabling children to acquire an education is one of the most effective means to reduce inequality, poverty, and ill-health globally. While in normal times a government controls its educational policies, during times of macroeconomic instability, that control may shift to supporting international organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF). While much research has focused on which sectors has been affected by IMF policies, scholars have devoted little attention to the policy content of IMF interventions affecting the education sector and childrens education outcomes: denoted IMF education policies. This article evaluates the extent which IMF education policies exist in all programs and how these policies and IMF programs affect childrens likelihood of completing schools. While IMF education policies have a small adverse effect yet statistically insignificant on childrens probability of completing school, these policies moderate effect heterogeneity for IMF programs. The effect of IMF programs (joint set of policies) adversely effect childrens chances of completing school by six percentage points. By analyzing how IMF-education policies but also how IMF programs affect the education sector in low and middle-income countries, scholars will gain a deeper understanding of how such policies will likely affect downstream outcomes.