The role of international regulatory standards within the current global environment has become of the most importance. The age of the global system and free market capitalism carried us into the unprecedented age of regulations, and standard setting. Regulations are now becoming the emerging mode of global governance. This study focuses on information aimed at promoting international standards and good practices in policy domain areas that cut across national agendas (e.g., financial instability) and, as such, are addressed through global frameworks and global institutions. More specifically, this study examines the differences in international standards' adoption by focusing on World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a case study. Transferring international standards-related information from international organizations comes with challenges, many of which result from differences in the characteristics of elements involved in the information transfer process: differences in the characteristics of the sender and receiver, varying types of content, and differences in external context characteristics. Recognizing that relatively little empirical research exists on this subject, this study examines how key determinants in the transfer of international regulatory standards-related information affect the effectiveness of the information transfer. My principal proposition is that adoption of a specific international standard can be explained by individual-level attributes (i.e., information type, adaptation of standards) as well as by country-level attributes (i.e., absorptive capacity, linguistic distance, incentives for adoption of standards). The study's primary research setting is a joint World Bank/IMF initiative, the Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC), which is aimed at promoting international standards and good practices. My study combines the use of primary and secondary sources with open-ended interviews conducted in the World Bank and IMF. I use ROSC-related documentation substantiated by on-site interviews conducted with ROSC project leaders and subject matter experts in World Bank and IMF, as well as secondary data sources, such as the World Bank and eStandards Forum. Multilevel modeling is used to test the overall research model. The findings provide strong evidence that individual client's lack of transparency regarding standard's compliance, use of standardized templates for data gathering do matter for standard's adoption. Additionally, at the country level, absorptive capacity of the overall government and WTO membership does affect the country's adoption of the standard. This study is one of the first to demonstrate the integration of several theoretical traditions on regulations, information transfer and international development institutions using multiple levels of analysis. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]