Bulletin No 64 Autumn 1995

IN THIS ISSUE...

This issue of the Bulletin reports publications and discussion meetings on the monetary policy of the European Central Bank; workshops on financial intermediation, telecommunications, global economic ins, and the new economic geography; and discussion meetings on UK corporate governance, Germany's innovation crisis, European economic growth and the environment.

Unemployment: Choices for Europe
Two CEPR publications explore Europe's most pressing economic problem, one addressing the unemployment crisis throughout the European Union, the other focusing on potential solutions for the specific case of Spain.

Crisis? What Crisis?
A new CEPR publication by Barry Eichengreen and Richard Portes analyses various approaches to coping better with Mexico-style debt crisis, offering a new agenda for orderly workouts for sovereign debtors.

The European Central Bank
A joint conference in Frankfurt with the Irving Fisher Society examined the appropriate monetary policy for the European Central Bank.

Financial Intermediation
At a joint workshop with CEMFI in Madrid, researchers discussed a variety of models of the banking sector, while another, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, explored the relationship between financial intermediation and real economic activity.

Global Economic Institutions
A new ESRC research programme on Global Economic Institutions was launched with two workshops, one a general introduction in London, the second, in Cambridge, focusing more specifically on sovereign debt and the role of the IMF.

Telecommunications
Researchers at a joint workshop with CREST in Paris addressed the economics of mobile communications and related regulatory issues.

The New Economic Geography
A new research programme on economic geography was launched with two workshops, one in Heidelberg on the economic sources of agglomeration, the other in Paris on local labour markets.

Discussion Meetings
At an Edinburgh meeting at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Colin Mayer suggested that the UK debate on corporate governance has focused on the wrong issues.

At a Bonn meeting with the Anglo-German Foundation, David Audretsch explained the sources of the innovation, unemployment and competitiveness crises in Germany.

At a London meeting, Nicholas Crafts explored the policy implications of new theories of economic growth, and at a Brussels meeting with ECARE he and Gianni Toniolo drew lessons from Europe's Golden Age.

At a London meeting, Ian Goldin and Partha Dasgupta inquired whether there really is a conflict between the goals of economic growth and environmental protection.

Among Recent Discussion Papers
Gianni de Fraja and Elisabetta Iossa consider the implications for regulatory policy of industries dominated by a firm that controls market access.

Alsion Booth examines the connection between firing costs and the high level of European unemployment.

André Sapir analyses the European Union debate on the relationship between liberalization and the harmonization of social policies.

Joseph Zeira presents a new understanding of the adoption of technological innovation in models of economic growth.

László Halpern and Charles Wyplosz explore the path of real exchange rates during the transition from a planned to a market economy.