This paper brings insights into ideational robustness to bear on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) fiscal policy thinking. It advances understanding of both the IMF and the concept of ideational robustness by focusing on economic ideas as they are put into practice by expert economic institutions. The IMF has traditionally enjoyed a reputation as a hawkish enforcer of neoliberal doctrine and conservative fiscal discipline, foregrounding deficit bias and fiscal sustainability concerns. Capitalist crises, notably the 2008 crash and COVID, have seen public debt increase while rendering growth and stability increasingly elusive. This turbulence has spurred some rethinking of Fund fiscal ideas. The IMF has added the new concept of fiscal space to its policy commentary and advocacy. Fiscal space seeks to reconcile economic stabilization and supporting growth to the Fund’s overarching concern to maintain fiscal discipline and sustainability. A focus on how ideas are put into practice shows that long-standing Fund fiscal priorities are hardwired into operational frameworks, curtailing the new emphasis and adaptions. Thus, key to the institutional conditions of IMF fiscal policy actions are “baked in” economic ideas. These are operationalized through economic models, analytical tools, fiscal evaluation frameworks, and standard operating procedures. The “politics of economic method,” in the form of deliberation and contestation over different normative ideas that can underpin alternative constructions of such policy frameworks, plays an important role in shaping which economic ideas come to matter, and how, for the IMF. The Fund’s “fiscal space” episode can be interpreted as a quest for ideational robustness (through increased flexibility), which thus far remains unrealized due to the crucial role of these mechanisms, institutional conditions, and ideational path dependencies.

中文翻译：

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“根深蒂固”的想法如何阻碍理念的稳健性：国际货币基金组织和“财政空间”


本文深入探讨了国际货币基金组织 (IMF) 财政政策思维的稳健性理念。它通过关注专家经济机构将经济理念付诸实践来增进对国际货币基金组织和理念稳健性概念的理解。国际货币基金组织传统上享有新自由主义信条和保守财政纪律的鹰派执行者的声誉，强调赤字偏见和财政可持续性问题。资本主义危机，特别是 2008 年的经济崩溃和新冠疫情，导致公共债务增加，同时使增长和稳定变得越来越难以捉摸。这种动荡促使人们重新思考国际货币基金组织的财政理念。国际货币基金组织在其政策评论和倡导中加入了财政空间的新概念。财政空间寻求协调经济稳定和支持增长与国际货币基金组织维持财政纪律和可持续性的首要关切。对如何将想法付诸实践的关注表明，基金组织长期的财政优先事项已固定在运营框架中，从而限制了新的重点和调整。因此，国际货币基金组织财政政策行动的制度条件的关键是“融入”经济理念。这些是通过经济模型、分析工具、财政评估框架和标准操作程序来实施的。 “经济方法的政治”以对不同规范思想的审议和争论的形式出现，这些规范思想可以支撑此类政策框架的替代性构建，在决定哪些经济思想对国际货币基金组织重要以及如何重要方面发挥着重要作用。 国际货币基金组织的“财政空间”事件可以被解释为对理念稳健性的追求（通过增加灵活性），但由于这些机制、制度条件和理念路径依赖性的关键作用，这一目标迄今为止尚未实现。