Policy-based lending, structural adjustment and economic growth in Pakistan

This paper provides an econometric analysis of Pakistan’s structural adjustment program. Introduced in 1980, this program has been supported by the World Bank and IMF under their policy-based lending regimes. Building on recent advances in modelling the impact of policy reform, the paper applies a smooth transitions model to Pakistani real GDP data for the period 1960–2000. Results of this analysis suggest that the adjustment program has not stimulated growth in Pakistan, and that the origins of Pakistan’s post-program growth performance well pre-date this program.