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This issue of the Bulletin reports a major conference on the European
Monetary System, held in Perugia. The proceedings of the conference, to
be published by Cambridge University Press in September, promise to be
the definitive publication on the EMS. There are reports on the Centre's
joint research with NBER on empirical studies of strategic trade policy;
a workshop on male-female differences in the UK labour market; a
December conference in Munich comparing the British and German
experiences of `new conservative' economic policies; and an Anglo-French
Colloquium on financial innovation. This Bulletin also reports lunchtime
meetings on the twin US deficits, LDC debt relief, structural adjustment
programmes in developing countries, trade policies in the completed
European market, and historical evidence on profit-sharing in Britain. The EMS is frequently cited as a pioneering exercise in international policy coordination. Participants at an October conference examined the asymmetric nature of the EMS, the role of capital controls in sustaining the sytem, and its success in creating a zone of exchange rate stability in Europe. Strategic Trade Policy A major research project is under way, applying the theoretical insights of strategic trade policy to empirical policy issues. This programme led to a workshop as well as lunchtime meetings at which Alasdair Smith assessed the impact of voluntary export restraints in the UK car market, and Victor Norman examined the practical problems involved in formulating trade and industrial policy interventions in two Norwegian industries. Difference Equations A CEPR workshop explored the reasons why women tend to receive lower hourly pay than men and the effects of family responsibilities on the pay of women and men. `New Conservative' Economic Policies A comparison of the economic policies of the Thatcher and Kohl governments was the focus of an Anglo-German conference held in December. Economics of Financial Innovation The ninth Anglo-French Colloquium focused on recent innovations in financial markets, including the implications of increased deregulation in Britain and France and the analysis of new market instruments. Lunchtime Meetings Willem Buiter argued at a November lunchtime meeting that the US budget deficit was not exceptionally high by international standards and that only modest action was necessary to reduce it. Richard Portes urged that now was the time for a programme of selective LDC debt relief. He spoke at a meeting to launch CEPR's latest book, Global Macroeconomics: Policy Conflict and Cooperation. Rudiger Dornbusch argued that a further depreciation of the dollar was necessary to reduce the US trade deficit over the medium term. Alan Winters warned that completion of the internal EC market could make national subsidies to industry even more undesirable. Tim Hatton examined the historical experience of profit-sharing in Britain, which had been ignored in recent debates. Discussion Papers Paul Johnson compares the nineteenth century `transition to life-cycle savings behaviour' in the United States and Britain. Barry Eichengreen investigates whether the generosity of the unemployment benefit system contributed to interwar unemployment in Britain. Heather Joshi estimates the earnings forgone by women as a result of bearing children. In another paper with Eric de Cooman and John Ermisch, she evaluates econometric models of the birth rate. Barry Eichengreen's analysis of sovereign borrowing in the interwar period reveals that lenders were influenced by reputation rather than by current policy in the borrowing countries. Papers on the performance of policy rules based on exchange rate and/or nominal GDP targets, by George Alogoskoufis and by David Currie and Simon Wren-Lewis. Steve Alpern and Dennis Snower discuss a new approach to analysing firms' production and inventory decisions under demand uncertainty. Guido Tabellini explores whether fiscal deficits tend to be higher as a result of the interaction between the domestic electoral process and international policy coordination. |