Economic Policy will offer an independent, non-partisan, European forum for analyses of topical policy issues in economics. The articles will be specially commissioned from leading economists in Britain, and other European countries and elsewhere. Each article will provide an up-to-date, non- technical survey of current research on a specific policy question. The relevant empirical evidence will be assembled and its implications for policy-making made clear.

By insisting on a lucid and lively presentation, Economic Policy will address a wide audience and thereby inform and extend the debate over economic policy-making. Written in clear, non- technical language, Economic Policy will reach beyond the academic world. It will encourage fresh approaches and new insights into policy questions. The conclusions will be comprehensible and of direct interest to government ministers, their officials and advisers, corporate planners and managers, the financial community, economic journalists, and all those with an informed interest in economic affairs.

The subjects discussed in Economic Policy will span the entire range of policy issues. They will certainly include familiar macroeconomic issues such as national debt and deficit financing, unemployment and productivity; and microeconomic issues such as competition, industrial polices and the role of privatization. Economic Policy will emphasise the international dimension: the possibilities for cross-country comparisons, the balance between conflict and cooperation in national policy formation, and the constraints imposed on individual economies by their integration in the world economy. By identifying at an early stage emerging policy questions and by publishing rapidly, Economic Policy aims to produce timely analysis which will influence the policy debate.

The papers for each issue of Economic Policy will be discussed by the Economic Policy Panel, comprising prominent economists from Britain, the Continent and the rest of the world. A summary of the Panel's comments will follow each commissioned paper in Economic Policy. There will be two Panel meetings each year and thus two issues of each annual volume; a typical issue will include three long articles and one or two shorter papers.

Economic Policy will be supported by grants from private foundations and firms. It is being launched jointly by CEPR and two French partners, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme. It will in no way be a 'house journal', however; in particular, contributors need not be affiliated to these institutions, but instead will be drawn from leaders in their field throughout the world. Dr Georges de Menil (EHESS) and Professor Richard Portes (CEPR) will act as Senior Editors; Dr David Begg (Oxford) and Dr Charles Wyplosz (INSEAD, Fontainebleau) will be the Managing Editors, and Dr Charles Bean (LSE) Assistant Editor.

Papers have already been commissioned for the first issue and will be discussed at the June 1985 Panel meeting in Paris. The first issue of Economic Policy will be published in October 1985. Further information, including subscription details, will be available in future issues of the CEPR Bulletin.