The survival of political leaders and IMF programs

The primary motive of political leaders is to keep their jobs. The policies that best fulfill these goals depend upon the institutional context in which leaders serve. What constitutes effective public policy under one set of institutions constitutes political suicide under other institutions. With this in mind it is hardly surprising that the reasons that leaders turn to the IMF and their behavior under these programs also depends upon the institutional context. In this study we examine how IMF agreements affect the survival of leaders, and how this survival depends upon both domestic political institutions and the context under which leaders seek IMF programs.