In this collection, Bird (U. of Surrey, the U.K.) and Rowlands (Carleton U., Canada) have selected 38 previously published articles as representative of the current state of research in this pertinent field. The determinants of IMF programs, the design of IMF conditionality, the effects and implementation of IMF programs, and the issues of moral hazard and lender of last resort are the subject groupings. Within these topics, individual subjects include the influence of elections on IMF interruptions, currency crisis and the output costs of stabilization programs, and the economic characteristics of IMF program countries. The articles were first published between 1981 and 2004 in journals that include the IMF staff papers, Essays in international finance, and the Journal of developmental economics; they are presented here in facsimile. Name index only. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)