This paper poses the question whether and to what extent developing countries' macroeconomic policies affect their participation in IMF programs. The data contain 91 developing countries that received four types of IMF programs during the period 1967-1996. Using survival analysis and generalized...

IMF programs are often considered to carry a "stigma" that triggers adverse market reactions. We show that such a negative IMF effect disappears when accounting for endogenous selection into programs. To proxy for a country's access to financial markets, we use credit ratings and investor...