During the 1980, the IMF became a 'lender of last resort' for many developing country governments that had been cut off from private credit markets and faced destabilizing imbalances of payments.
After private capital began to return voluntarily to what were called the emerging market in the early 1990, the anticipated erosion for the Fund’s role in the developing world did not materialize.
As the Fund delves further onto the management of balance of payment and currency crises around the world, both theoretical and practical imperatives dictate that we specify more fully and test more systematically competing explanations of IMF behavior.