Are International Monetary Fund quotas unfavorable to less-developed countries?

Each member country of the International Monetary Fund (IMF or Fund) is assigned a ‘quota’, and the issue of differential treatment by the Fund to the disfavor of its less-developed members is closely connected to the country distribution of total Fund quotas. ¹ Yet there exists no study of developed versus less-developed country (DC versus LDC) disparity in the allocation of IMF quotas. ² The investigation of ‘quota disparity’ by level of development is the subject of the present paper. The approach is historical, covering intensely a quarter-century of the Fund’s existence, and involves some positive analysis (how the IMF actually determines quotas) but principally normative analysis (how the IMF ought to determine quotas).