|
Bulletin No 67
Autumn 1996 IN THIS ISSUE... This issue of the Bulletin reports research on the ins and outs of the European economic and monetary union; a conference on European industrial policy; workshops on the regulatory regime for the global telecommunications market, the location of financial activity and on firms and stockmarkets; and discussion meetings on the New Transatlantic Agenda, Swedish bonds, sovereign debt crisis, active labour market policies, a German migration law and regulation of the superhighway. Four researchers analyse the relation of the member states which are likely to enter into an economic and monetary union, if it takes place in 1999, with the ones which will not satisfy the Maastricht Treaty criteria for membership, who choose to stay out. A joint conference with WZB in Berlin aimed at stimulating the debate between economists and policy-makers on the design and implementation of industrial policy and at evaluating the effectiveness of the existing policies. At a workshop in London, which formed part of the ESRC Global Economic Institutions programme, researchers analysed how an increasingly liberalized telecommunications market is in need of new institutional arrangements for regulation as well as standard setting procedures. Location of Financial Activity In the CEPR network on ‘The New Economic Geography of Europe: Market Integration, Regional Convergence and the Location of Economic Activity’ a workshop was held in Naples to discuss the issue of location of financial activity. Researchers at a workshop in Toulouse addressed the issues of corporate governance, stock market financing, and the relation between firms and the stockmarket. Discussion Meetings The Foreign and Commonwealth office hosted a workshop on the New Transatlantic Marketplace which focused on the pattern of trade and production between North America and Western Europe, the pattern of import protection and the likely trade and income effects of trade liberalization. At a joint CEPR-SNS meeting in Stockholm, Carlo Favero explained the behaviour of Swedish interest rates and decomposed the yield spread (relative to Germany) into exchange rate risk and default risk. At a London meeting, Barry Eichengreen suggested new institutional vehicles to contend with the enormous capital flows of the 1990s. At a Sofia meeting, Michael Burda examined the potential for and limitations of active labour market policies in dealing with the unemployment problem. At a Bonn meeting with the Anglo-German Foundation, Klaus F Zimmermann addressed the question: Is a migration law inevitable in Germany? At a joint ECARE-CEPR meeting in Brussels, Paul Grout suggested that current and proposed EU regulation will hamper progress towards an information superhighway. Among Recent Discussion Papers Danny Quah provides a critical review of traditional and current research on convergence, which evaluates the opportunity of the currently poorer economies to catch up with those currently richer. Cassey Mulligan and Xavier Sala-i-Martin assess new financial technologies and explain the implications for money demand and monetary policy. John Bennett and Huw Dixon develop a model of the Chinese economy, with its distinctive features of a dual- track pricing system and diversity of ownership forms, to analyse the macroeconomic policy tools used by the Chinese government. Dani Rodrik addresses the question of why more open economies have bigger governments. Joseph Francois, Bradley McDonald and Håkan Nordström offer a user’s guide to the Uruguay Round assessments. |