IN THIS ISSUE...

The first article of this Bulletin reports a joint CEPR conference with the Banco de Portugal on Europe's transition to economic and monetary union. This issue also reports conferences on new in growth theory, the European Community's trade patterns and policies after `1992', and economic transformation in Hungary, and a lunchtime meeting on the economic effects of differing patterns of child care provision across Europe.

Economic and Monetary Union
A joint conference with the Banco de Portugal considered the key policy issues in the transition to economic and monetary union and in the operation of an established EMU, focusing in particular on the prospects for inflation convergence and growth the `catching-up' EC member countries.

New Growth Theory
A Tokyo joint conference with NBER and the Tokyo Center for Economic Research reviewed recent `endogenous growth' theories that incorporate the effects of human and physical capital accumulation, income distribution and migration.

European Integration
The final Paris conference of a major CEPR research project reviewed its principal findings the on effects on international trade flows and trade policies of completing the `1992' programme

Eastern Europe
Researchers and policy-makers at a London conference considered the relationships between privatization and other reforms in Hungary's current economic transformation and lessons for the design of reform packages elsewhere in Eastern Europe.

Lunchtime Meeting
At a February lunchtime meeting, Heather Joshi reviewed the economic lessons for the UK of differing patterns of child care provision elsewhere in Europe.

Among Recent Discussion Papers
Willem Buiter argues that savings and investment behaviour can affect not only the level but also the rate of growth of income.

Alberto Alesina, Gerald Cohen and Nouriel Roubini find that models of the `political business cycle' based on electoral manipulation of policy instruments perform better than those based on data reporting economic outcomes.

Dalia Marin maintains that countertrade may have better welfare properties than import tariffs for LDCs and former CPEs.

Zhen Kun Wang and L Alan Winters argue that granting Eastern Europe access to Western markets is essential to the development of its own market institutions and hence to the growth of Western exports to the region.

Gérard Roland and Thierry Verdier stress the need for a `critical mass' of private ownership to ensure the successful transformation of Eastern Europe's industrial structure.

Gilles Saint-Paul and Thierry Verdier argue that delaying the extension of political rights to the poor may help promote a more equal income distribution and growth.

Michael Burda and Charles Wyplosz assess the economic implications of East-West migration for Europe as a whole and for Germany in particular.

Paul Masson and Mark Taylor argue that a supranational monetary authority may promote inflation convergence in Europe, which should therefore not be set as a precondition for moving further to EMU.

Andrew Hughes Hallett and Yue Ma find that income convergence in Eastern and Western Germany may take some 30 years to complete.

István Abel and John Bonin compare and contrast the effects of Hungarian and Polish stabilization policies on foreign direct investment, real wages, inflation and the effective exchange rate.

Gérard Roland argues that price liberalization in the CIS is essential to avoid disputes over the terms of trade that would threaten export retention by all republics.

Michael Artis disputes the common view that UK and US experience of destabilizing financial innovation in the 1980s portends instability for Europe in the 1990s.