International Monetary Fund programmes and the glass cliff effect

Mirko Heinzel, Andreas Kern, Saliha Metinsoy and Bernhard Reinsberg

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We analyse the impact of International Monetary Fund (IMF) programmes on appointing women leaders in ministerial positions. We hypothesize that women leaders are selected after an incumbent government starts an IMF programme to shift accountability to them during political and economic turmoil. This political manoeuvring of appointing women to leadership positions during a crisis is known as the ‘glass cliff’ effect. We demonstrate substantial evidence for such a ‘glass cliff’ effect using data covering all IMF programmes from 1980 to 2018. Our evidence shows that women are more likely to be appointed to austerity-bearing ministerial positions under IMF programmes but not in positions of authority during negotiations with the IMF. This effect is more pronounced when a country displays worse societal gender norms, a higher level of corruption and a government facing a deeper economic crisis. Importantly, we verify that neither women's leadership nor a higher share of women in government predicts a balance of payments crisis triggering an IMF programme. In other words, women leaders do not govern worse; they are appointed to leadership positions in precarious, crisis-ridden conditions.

Keywords: gender inequality; glass cliff effect; International Monetary Fund; public sector; structural adjustment; women cabinet representation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F3 G3 J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2024-01-31
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Published in European Journal of Political Research, 31, January, 2024, 63(4), pp. 1515-1539. ISSN: 0304-4130

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:130398

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