Highlights 1) The European Union growth agenda has become even more pressing because growth is needed to support public and private sector deleveraging, reduce the fragility of the banking sector, counter the falling behind of southern European countries and prove that Europe is still a...

Prior actions are measures that need to be implemented prior to Board approval of an IMFsupported program. This paper examines whether such prior actions can signal a willingness to implement reforms, especially when the member's track record is weak. We find some support for this signaling...

Understanding adjustment processes has become central in economics. Empirical analysis is fraught with the problem that the target is usually unobserved. This paper develops, simulates and applies GMM methods for estimating dynamic adjustment models in a panel data context with partially...