IN THIS ISSUE...

Eastern Europe
CEPR Research Fellows have been involved in advising the European Commission's aid programme for Poland and Hungary. Issues include how to effect a fundamental change of economic regime; appropriate sequencing of liberalization; fiscal reform and consolidation; price liberalization and industrial restructuring; privatization; and flows of trade, debt service and aid.

CEPR Research Fellows have been involved in advising the European Commission's aid programme for Poland and Hungary. Issues include how to effect a fundamental change of economic regime; appropriate sequencing of liberalization; fiscal reform and consolidation; price liberalization and industrial restructuring; privatization; and flows of trade, debt service and aid.

European Financial Integration
European capital markets will be at least as much affected as goods markets by 1992 and EMU. CEPR held a conference in Rome with the Istituto Mobiliare Italiano to examine the design of integrated securities markets and financial regulation; the consequences for cross-border mergers, corporate finance and banking; harmonization of EC fiscal policies; and alternative routes to monetary integration.

Labour Market Mismatch
A Venice conference considered whether variations in unemployment rates across regional, skill and demographic groups can help explain increased unemployment in developed countries during the 1980s. Participants also discussed labour mobility and regional mismatch, and training programmes and skills mismatch.

Corporate Finance
CEPR participants in a Japanese-American-European conference on corporate finance, held in Tokyo, discussed cross-country differences in corporate finance; the role of public investment institutions in Japan; and the underpricing of initial public offerings.

Capital Adequacy Requirements
The Centre collaborated with the European Commission in holding a Seminar on proposals for EC-wide minimum capital requirements for banks and other investment businesses.

EMS
At a January lunchtime meeting, Francesco Giavazzi and Patrick Minford agreed from different viewpoints that tensions within the EMS will require that it either evolve faster into EMU or revert to freer floating.

Chaos Theories
Paul de Grauwe reported on pioneering research suggesting that `chaos' theories may help us to model and understand the dynamics of floating exchange rates.

1992 and Banking
Previous research has exaggerated the competitive gains from 1992 in banking, Xavier Vives told a February meeting. Important economic barriers to entry mean European banking will remain segmented and may become more concentrated.

Commodity Prices
L Alan Winters and Christopher Gilbert reported the findings of new research published in a CEPR volume on Primary Commodity Prices: Economic Models and Policy.

Discussion Papers
Lars Svensson examines interest rate variability and risk premia in an exchange rate band.

Louka Katseli argues that dualistic markets will hamper the adjustment of the Greek economy to 1992.

Thorvaldur Gylfason finds a negative relation between inflation and growth in a large cross-section of countries.

Wendy Takacs and L Alan Winters estimate that import restrictions do little to ease the social costs of unemployment for trade-displaced UK footwear workers.

Thorvaldur Gylfason assesses the fixed exchange rate policies pursued by the Nordic members of EFTA.

Jorge Braga de Macedo argues that Portugal's response to European integration remains ambiguous, notably in fiscal policy.

Michael Burda and Stefan Gerlach show that deterioration in the durables balance explains nearly all the US trade deficit.

Michael Artis and Wenda Zhang conduct BVAR forecasts for the world economy; they compare well with conventional forecasts.

Alex Cukierman, Sebastian Edwards and Guido Tabellini explain why political instability fosters reliance on seigniorage.