Advice on public financial management and Anti-Corruption: A comparison of the OECD, IMF and World Bank

Our paper examines advice given to governments on public financial management and anti-corruption by the three most relevant international governmental organizations (IGOs): the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The work is part of a three-year research project, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, on the diffusion of policy ideas on public sector reform and practice.

Given the important roles that IGOs play in inducing policy change, particularly on issues of public finances, it is remarkable how little comparative work exists (Deacon & Hulse, 1997; Hansen, Salskov-Iversen, & Bislev, 2002; Jacoby, 2001; Lera St. Clair, 2006; Murphy, 2007; Murray, 1983; Pal, 2012; Rodrik, 2006; Stone & Wright, 2007; Williams, 2008; Woods, 2006). We hope that, in addition to supplementing the literature on IGOs, our paper contributes to the study of public management reform, particularly the spread of policy innovations around the world through mechanisms of policy transfer and diffusion (Bennett, 1997; Desai & Snavely, 2007; D. Dolowitz & Marsh, 1996; D. P. Dolowitz & Marsh, 2000; Duncan, 2009; Evans, 2004, 2009a, 2009b; Marsh & Sharman, 2009; Stone, 2004).