Attempting global standards: National governments, international finance, and the IMF's data regime

This article explores the conditions under which international financial standards succeed. While rationalist accounts treat the successful creation of international standards as a relatively straightforward exercise, I suggest otherwise. The cooperation of private sector agents is a necessary condition for successful standards, and this cooperation hinges on certain elements of institutional design. Using an assessment of the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), I explore issues of institutional design and effectiveness. On the basis of surveys of mutual fund managers and government officials, I argue that because the private sector has yet to become involved fully in the promulgation of the SDDS, the SDDS effort has not yet achieved its goals.