Bulletin No 66 Spring 1996

IN THIS ISSUE...

This issue of the Bulletin reports publications and discussion meetings on European Integration; conferences on commercial policy, banking sector reform and new economic geography; workshops on labour market dynamics, market microstructure, competition policy, trade and migration, the Japanese economy, income inequality and exchange rates and monetary policy in Europe.

Flexible Integration
A CEPR publication calls for significant economic, political and legal reforms of the European Union. To avoid a stalemate, the report proposes a solution that combines flexibility with political integration.

Commercial Policy Analysis
At a conference in Geneva researchers studied dynamic issues in applied commercial policy analysis.

Banking Sector Reform
Researchers and policy-makers from Eastern and Western Europe discussed a report on banking sector development in Central and Eastern Europe, at the first Economic Policy Initiative forum in Warsaw.

The New Economic Geography
A joint conference with GIIS in Geneva discussed issues related to Trade, Location and Technology. 

Labour Market Dynamics
At a workshop in Berlin both theoretical and empirical aspects of the flow approach to labour market analysis were considered.

International Trade
The annual European Research Workshop in International Trade took place in Thessaloniki

Competition Policy
A workshop in Lausanne examined all aspects of European competition policy.

Exchange Rates
A joint workshop with IGIER in Milan investigated the economics of exchange rates and the informational value of financial asset prices for European monetary policy.

Migration and Trade
At another workshop with IGIER researchers analysed the impact of trade and migration on the sending country.

The Economy of Japan
Recent research on the Japanese financial and labour markets was presented at a workshop in Berlin.

Finance in Europe
The Institut d'Anàlisi Economia (CSIC) in Barcelona hosted a workshop on market microstructure.

Income Inequality
At a workshop in Vigo, researchers reviewed recent theoretical and empirical work to provide an explanation for the shifts in income inequality , distribution of wages and unemployment. 

Among Recent Discussion Papers
Assar Lindbeck and Dennis Snower consider the contemporary organizational restructuring of production and work and derive some salient implications for the labour market.

Richard Baldwin, Jan Haaland and Rikard Forslid study the investment creation and investment diversion effects of the EU's single market programme.

Jorge Padilla and Marco Pagano question why lenders spontaneously contribute valuable information on their customers to their competitors.

Kai-Uwe Kühn and Xavier Vives analyse whether competition policy should prevent vertical integration by an upstream firm with market power in order to safeguard downstream competition.

Tito Boeri and Michael Burda investigate the role of active labour market policy in maintaining low unemployment in the Czech Republic.

Roel Beetsma and Lans Bovenberg examine public debt accumulation in a monetary union.