An analysis of the role of the International Monetary Fund has earned University of Rochester political scientist Randall W. Stone the 2003 Ed A. Hewett Book Prize for Lending Credibility: The International Monetary Fund and Post-Communist Transition.
Stone’s 2002 book published by Princeton University Press was selected by the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research as “a major achievement” for its systematic effort to address the influence of the International Monetary Fund over economies in post-Communist transition. Stone is associate professor of political science, and the author of several publications on international relations and international political economy.
During this academic year, Stone is involved in research as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Berlin. He is in residence at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (German Institute for International and Security Affairs), an independent research center that deals with issues relevant to German foreign and security policy.
The Hewett selection committee praised the combination of case studies, statistical analysis, and formal game theoretic model in Lending Credibility along with Stone’s detailed interviews with dozens of former officials “to reconstruct the decision-making process in four of the countries under study and test his theoretical results.” Stone determined that the IMF is neither as controlling as some critics fear, nor as weak as others believe. Its influence varies from country to country, depending upon the credibility of its commitment to enforce the conditions it attaches to loans.
The Hewett prize is given to an outstanding publication on the political economy of the former Soviet Union, East Central Europe, and/or their successor states.
Besides his Fulbright award, Stone was selected earlier this year as a research fellow by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.