Developing Countries Will Follow Post-crisis OECD Reforms but Not Passively This Time

Will reforms emerging from the 2008 crisis have a global impact and influence developing countries? Evidence suggests that this happened before, after meltdowns in the 1970s. This article deconstructs how reforms diffused in this period and why countries followed different reform timelines. Institutional theory and a descriptive analysis of post-1970s experience suggest that countries followed different reform paths. Developing countries copied reforms seen as legitimate in various OECD countries, supported by entities upon which developing countries were dependent. The article argues that developing countries may not follow the same path now. Endogenous discussions about reform options are more common in developing countries now. More external reform alternatives have also emerged from new development partners such as China, and it is unclear that countries such as the USA will chart postcrisis reform paths developing countries perceive as worthy of following.