Raise the debt : how developing countries choose their creditors /

Developing countries borrow funds from a variety of sources. Bunte (UT Dallas) groups these sources into IFIs (international financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank), DACs (Western governments who are members of the Development Assistance Committee), BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China), and private lenders. Each source has different conditions and different effects. To examine how a choice among creditors might be made, the author establishes three societal groups: finance, industry, and labor. Each group favors some creditors over others because of how they would be affected. These societal groups can have influence on government decision-making with regard to creditors. This influence can be stronger if two groups have similar interests. Thus the possibility of three coalitions; capital (finance and industry); corporatist (industry and labor); consumer (finance and labor). Using quantitative and qualitative methods, the outcomes suggested by the author are analyzed in depth in three countries: Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. These represent the three different coalitions while sharing similar characteristics of geography and democracy. The study was enlarged to 92 countries from 2005 to 2015 using data from many sources. The results support Bunte's thesis about how the coalitions influence developing countries' decisions. The book is derived from Bunte's dissertation. It is very repetitive. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students through faculty. --Janice E. Weaver, emerita, Drake University