· Highlights of this issue

· Transition Economics - Understanding the Labour Markets

The following conferences were discussed in this issue:

· Foreign Exchange - Speculative Attacks on Reserves

· CEP Conference - Growth, Trade and Labour Markets

· Migration - Trade and Factor Mobility

· Growth - Technology and Factor Transfers

· International Business Cycles - Links with Financial Markets

· Empirical Macroeconomics - Modelling Issues

The following workshops were discussed in this issue:

· International Trade - ERWIT 1997

· EMU - North vs South

· Economic Policy - Rising Inequalities

· Corporate Finance - Recent Theories and Evidence

· 'New' Economic Geography - Growth, Trade and Location

The following discussion meetings were discussed in this issue:

· EMU - German Doubts

· Commodities Futures - The Sumitomo Affair

· Trade Liberalization - Transatlantic Trade Agreement?

· EMU - Unemployment Fears Unfounded?

· The Swedish Model - Lessons for New Labour?

· EMU - UK Ostrich?

· World Bank - Restructuring Dilemmas

· Education Outcomes - Family matters?

· Transition Economies - Industrial Policy Role

· Trade Liberalization - Zero-Sum Game?

· EMU - Creditworthy Reforms Needed

· Labour Markets - Burdensome Taxes

· Unemployment - Radical Remedies

The following CEPR Books can be ordered:

· Economic Policy Initiative 4

The following Discussion Papers were discussed in this issue:

· Benefit Duration and Unemployment Entry: Quasi-experimental Evidence for Austria by Rudolf Winter-Ebmer

· Minimum Quality Standards as Facilitating Devices: An Example with Leapfrogging and Exit by Iñigo Herguera and Stefan Lutz

· Growing Locations: Industry Location in a Model of Endogenous Growth by Gianmarco I P Ottaviano and Philippe Martin

· Minimum Wage Legislation, Work Conditions and Employment by Gianni De Fraja

· Regionalism versus Multilateralism by L Alan Winters

· The Response of Wages and Actual Hours Worked to the Reduction of Standard Hours in Germany by Jennifer Hunt

· To be (Unionized) or Not to be? A Case for Cost-raising Strategies by Jacques Bughin and Stefano Vannini

· Front-running by Mutual Fund Managers: It ain't that Bad by Jean-Pierre Danthine and Serge Moresi

· Growth and Agglomeration by Philippe Martin and Gianmarco I P Ottaviano

· How to Fix Conversion Rates at the Start of EMU by Paul De Grauwe

· Job Tenure: Does History Matter? by Alison L Booth, Marco Francesconi and Carlos Garcia-Serrano

· Designing a Cheaper and More Effective Unemployment Benefit System by Melvyn G Coles

· The Multilateral Trade Agenda: Uruguay Round Implementation and Beyond by Joseph F Francois and Bradley McDonald

· Potential Unemployment Benefit Duration and Spell Length: Lessons from a Quasi-experiment in Austria by Rudolf Winter-Ebmer

· Aspects of Fiscal Performance in some Transition Economies under Fund-supported Programs by Willem H Buiter

· Parental Support for Human Capital Investment by Young Adults by John F Ermisch

· Manipulation of Metals Futures: Lessons from Sumitomo by Christopher L Gilbert

· Competition among Middlemen When Buyers and Sellers can Trade Directly by John Fingleton

· Competition between Intermediated and Direct Trade and the Timing of Disintermediation by John Fingleton

· Where do Migrants Go? Risk-Aversion, Mobility Costs and the Locational Choice of Migrants by Francesco Daveri and Riccardo Faini