Bulletin 7 FEBRUARY 1985

IN THIS ISSUE...

The Human Resources programme has been particularly active in early 1985. In this issue of the Bulletin you will find reports of workshops on Retirement in the 20th Century and on Health and Unemployment. Heather Joshi, a Research Fellow in the Human Resources programme, discussed the price of parenthood in a lunchtime talk on 18 January which is reported in this Bulletin.

March sees the publication of CEPR's first book, [f]11International Economic Policy Coordination[f]10. Produced jointly with the National Bureau of Economic Research, the book contains the proceedings of the June 1984 CEPR-NBER policy coordination conference. In this issue of the Bulletin one of the conference participants, CEPR Research Fellow David Currie, discusses some related issues in economic policy design.

Policy Design

David Currie, Research Fellow in the International Macroeconomics programme, discusses the implications of control theory, game theory and rational expectations for the design of economic policy.

Retirement in the 20th Century

Older men and women, still able to contribute to the economy, have increasingly withdrawn from the labour force. Do we understand what forces govern the pattern of retirement and the effects it has on the economy and the individuals concerned? These were some of the issues discusses at a January CEPR workshop.

Health and Unemployment

There are over three million unemployed in the UK. Are the unemployed more likely to suffer ill-health? Are there measures which can be taken to protect the health of the unemployed? Does the experience of the 1930s provide any useful lessons in this regard?

The Price of Parenthood

Heather Joshi calculated the lifetime earnings foregone by women as a result of bearing children. She presented her estimates at a January lunchtime meeting.

Economic Policy

Initial appointments have been made to the Panel of this new journal. The first Panel Meeting will take place in June and the first issue of the journal will be available in October 1985.

Discussion Papers

Eric De Cooman, John Ermisch and Heather Joshi examine how the labour market has affected birth rate fluctuations since 1945.

Tony Venables discusses how customs unions affect the pattern of production, trade and consumer welfare.

Michael McAleer, Paul Volker and Adrian Pagan argue that Leamer's "Extreme Bounds Analysis' is not an adequate methodology for econometrics.

Alasdair Smith discusses the problems involved in calculating "shadow prices' for cost-benefit analysis when there are market distortions and interrelated markets. In a second Discussion Paper, he examines whether product diversification prevents the computation of these shadow prices.