This first quarterly issue of the Bulletin reports CEPR conferences on effects of `skills gaps' on economic activity, North-South interactions, the economics of EC enlargement, sustainable development, organized crime and new currencies, workshops on merger regulation and post-war European growth, and seven discussion meetings.

The Skills Gap
A London conference focused on identifying the `skills gaps' that arise if incentives to invest in training are inadequate, their economic effects and policy interventions to overcome them.

North-South Interactions
Participants in an Oxford conference reviewed the modelling of monetary, trade and fiscal linkages between commodity-producing LDCs and the industrialized market economies of the North.

EC Enlargement
A conference with the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation assessed the effects on current and prospective EC members of enlargement to the EFTA countries.

Sustainable Development
A conference with the OECD Development Centre considered the linkages with the environment of recent theories of trade, growth and fiscal policy.

Organized Crime
A conference with STEP and the Università di Bologna reviewed recent research into the economics of criminal behaviour, the industrial economics of illegal markets and the optimum enforcement of laws.

New Currencies
Academics and central bankers at a Frankfurt conference assessed the performance of the new currencies introduced by the successor states of the former Soviet Union.

Industrial Organization
Academics and competition policy practitioners at a Paris workshop addressed the design of appropriate regulatory frameworks for merger control at the national and international levels.

Post-war European Growth
A Berlin workshop assessed the contributions of labour and product market institutions to different long-run levels and patterns of growth across European economies.

Discussion Meetings
Richard Portes and Joan Pearce reviewed the Central European economies' progress in transformation and discussed policy proposals for their continued integration into the world economy.

Paul Johnson and Klaus F Zimmermann discussed the labour market implications of European ageing.
Damien Neven and Paul Seabright presented the major findings of the first independent study of the 1990 EC Merger Regulation.

Colin Mayer reviewed recent recent research into the respective roles of bank lending and bond issues in financing large firms.

Gene Grossman discussed the environmental effects of trade liberalization and growth, with particular reference to the NAFTA.

Alberto Giovannini and Joseph Stiglitz reviewed the roles of financial markets and regional policy in promoting economic development.

Kym Anderson reviewed the costs of the US-EC farm trade confrontation and proposed that the Community negotiate away the CAP for improved market access for industrial goods.