Events for the Year 2005

Events for the Year 2005

Conferences, workshops and lunchtime briefings are indicated in RED. Participation is, however, limited. If you would like to obtain more information, please contact our meetings team.

Discussion meetings, however, are open and are indicated in BLUE. Please feel free to attend.

	3/1/2005		Conference in Memory of Oved Yosha , Tel-Aviv
			Oved Yosha died in 2003, at forty six years of age. He was a prominent figure in the community of economists in Israel, in Europe and in the United States. He was also an active and devoted member of the CEPR research community. Moshe Buchinsky (Brown University), Daniel Tsiddon (Tel Aviv University and CEPR), and Philippe Weil (Université Libre de Bruxelles and CEPR) are organising a conference in memory of Oved. CEPR wishes to join in this tribute to a much-missed Research Fellow. The general theme of the conference tries to encompass Oved's broad interests in research, and will range from financial economics to industrial organization to macroeconomics. Information on the conference is attached, but there is still room to add papers and participants. The conference will take place in Tel Aviv, 3-5 January.

	27/1/2005		Temporary Work Agencies: A New Source of Labour Market Flexibility , Berlin
			CEPR, The British Embassy of Berlin and the Schumpter Institut of Humboldt University are jointly hosting a workshop on "Temporary Agency Work: A New Source of Labour Market Flexibility?". The meeting will include a panel discussion on "Quo Vadis Agency Work?". The meeting is supported by the European Commission's Socio-Economic Research activity under the programme "Improving Human Research Potential & the Socio-economic Knowledge base" (Contract no HPSE-CT-2001-00071)

	27/1/2005		The Impact of Productivity Growth on Employment and Unemployment , London
			How does technological growth affect employment and unemployment? New technology makes jobs more productive and this encourages job creation. But how much new job creation is forthcoming depends both on how much wages increase to offset the increase in expected profits associated with the higher productivity and what type of new investment is needed to take advantage of the new technology. Christopher Pissarides examines these issues and estimates the impact of technology and productivity growth on employment, wages and investment for a panel of industrial countries. Works to be presented at this meeting is based on work published as part of the 'The Dynamic Approach to Europe's Unemployment Problem'. Contract number HPSE-CT-2001-00071.

	28/1/2005		Final Meeting of the RTN: The Analysis of International Capital Markets , London
			This is the final meeting of the Research Training Network on 'The Analysis of International Capital Markets: Understanding Europe's Role in the Global Economy'. The objective of this Network is to improve understanding of the operation of international capital markets and the implications for macroeconomic behaviour and the formation of financial regulation and taxation policies. This conference forms part of a Research Training Network (Contract No HPCF-CT-1999-00067) funded by the 'Improving Human Potential Action' of the European Commission's Fifth Framework Programme.

	28/1/2005		Inaugural Conference for the 'European Corporate Governance Training Network' , Oxford
			This meeting is the inaugural conference of the European Corporate Governance Training Network. This is a European Commission-sponsored Marie Curie Research Training Network which will reduce the European research and training gap in corporate governance by bringing together Europe's leading academics and institutions from law, economics, finance and management to train doctoral students in conducting world class research in this area. The training experience will be enhanced by inclusion of nodes from Canada, Turkey, Switzerland and the United States, each contributing special expertise and training opportunities. This meeting has been organised by the European Corporate Governance Institute and is funded through the Marie Curie Actions (Human Resource and Mobility) of the Commission's Sixth Framework Programme (Contract number MRTM-CT-2004-504799).

	4/2/2005		Fondation's Fourth Journées: Micro, Macro and International Liquidity , Paris
			The conference is intended as an annual forum for discussion among economists from national and international institutions, central and commercial banks, universities and research institutes. This year, three research papers connected with the theme of liquidity and sponsored by the Foundation will be presented and discussed. Governor Christian Noyer will chair a special panel session on International Debt Restructuring.

	11/2/2005		Regional Development at the Periphery: Theory, Policy and Measurement , Glasgow
			This Colloquium on New Economic Geography seeks to bring together international scholars from both economics and geography to contribute to a debate about the prospects facing peripheral regions in the context of an increasingly integrated world economy. The aim of the Colloquium is to provide a forum for discussion of recent theoretical advances in research, the empirical evidence of geographical concentration of economic activity, and policy solutions for the problems facing peripheral countries and regions.

	25/2/2005		LESER Dissemination Event in Brussels , Brussels


	28/2/2005		Targeted Employment Policies in Spain: Theory, Evidence and Policy Implications , Madrid


	2/3/2005		Making Trade Agreements More Supportive of Development , Berlin


	9/3/2005		The Socio-Economic Impact of Mobiles in Africa , London
			Africa has seen faster growth in mobile telephone subscriptions than any other region of the world during the past five years, and mobile telephones far exceed the number of fixed lines on the continent. Vodafone launched a programme early in 2004 to examine the socio-economic impact of mobiles (SIM) in developing countries. This SIM programme aims to understand how people use mobile communication and how this is affecting economic and social development. The early studies have explored impacts at both the community and national level. Future research will examine the regulatory frameworks that best suit the development needs of developing countries.

	17/3/2005		3rd Macroeconomic Policy Design for Monetary Union Research Training Network Conference , London Business School
			This is the third workshop of this network which aims to provide a rigorous account of the operation of macroeconomic policy in Europe, both within the euro area and in its periphery. It will build on the latest developments in macroeconomics to assess: the need for coordination between monetary and fiscal authorities (and/or among the fiscal authorities themselves) within EMU; the desirability of alternative monetary and exchange rate arrangements for neighbouring European countries that are not members of EMU; deficit and debt spillovers, sustainability of fiscal policies and the role of the Stability and Growth Pact; and empirical fiscal policy rules, how fiscal policy is being conducted in Europe. This conference forms part of a Research Training Network (EC Contract no.: HPRN-CT-2002-00237) funded by the Improving human potential programme of the European Commission's fifth framework programme.

	18/3/2005		European Banking Integration: the Way Forward , London
			Five years ago, the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) produced a report on the Future of European Banking in which it concluded that European Union (EU) financial markets were fundamentally segmented and that this was one area . A lot has happened since then. Perhaps most significantly of all the European Union has launched its Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP). This new report reviews progress that has been made in eliminating regulatory and non-regulatory barriers to trade in banking services and the degree to which European banking markets have become integrated. It also sets out some key policy recommendations that relate to the assessment of the FSAP and suggests that the pursuit of financial integration raises fundamental questions.

	6/4/2005		Launch of "Monitoring European Deregulation 3: Banking" , Brussels
			Five years ago, the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) produced a report on the Future of European Banking in which it concluded that European Union (EU) financial markets were fundamentally segmented and that this was one area . A lot has happened since then. Perhaps most significantly of all the European Union has launched its Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP). This new report reviews progress that has been made in eliminating regulatory and non-regulatory barriers to trade in banking services and the degree to which European banking markets have become integrated. It also sets out some key policy recommendations that relate to the assessment of the FSAP and suggests that the pursuit of financial integration raises fundamental questions about the ownership of banks that have not been adequately considered to date.

	20/4/2005		The Socio-Economic Impact of Mobiles in Africa , Brussels
			Africa has seen faster growth in mobile telephone subscriptions than any other region of the world during the past five years, and mobile telephones far exceed the number of fixed lines on the continent. Vodafone launched a programme early in 2004 to examine the socio-economic impact of mobiles (SIM) in developing countries. This SIM programme aims to understand how people use mobile communication and how this is affecting economic and social development. The early studies have explored impacts at both the community and national level. Future research will examine the regulatory frameworks that best suit the development needs of developing countries.

	28/4/2005		Globalisation and Contracts: Trade, Finance and Development , Paris
			This conference is the second research network meeting, involving US and European researchers working in the areas of international trade and finance, development, and contract theory. The purpose of the network is to bring together researchers from different traditions - such as general equilibrium models of trade and finance, contract theory, the theory of the firm and corporate finance - to interact and to learn how their models can be adapted to general equilibrium models of trade and finance. This workshop is organized around three main themes: Contracts and Trade, Contracts and International Finance, Contracts and Development. Sponsored by the VolkswagenStiftung.

	28/4/2005		The Long Run Growth and Development of the World Economy: Measurement and Theory , Venice
			In recent years, economic theorists have made important advances in understanding the transition of economies from pre-industrial stagnation to modern economic growth, while economic historians have developed a detailed empirical account of economic growth over the second millennium. The aim of the exploratory workshop is to bring together the insights of theorists and historians, and pave the way for future common research on the causes of economic growth in the very long run. The workshop will actively seek presentations by junior researchers. The conference is being organised under the auspices of the CEPR’s Economic History Initiative, and is sponsored by the European Science Foundation under its exploratory workshop programme; with additional funding from CSGR (Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation at the University of Warwick).

	1/5/2005		Competition Policy in the New Economy , tbc


	5/5/2005		Institutions, Policies and Economic Growth , Fontainebleau
			This conference will provide a forum for discussion on recent debates on the effects of institutions and economic policies on macroeconomic performance. Some of the issues to be discussed in the conference are: how institutions affect policies, types of institutional arrangements that promote economic growth, macroeconomic policies' contribution to economic growth, the role of the exchange rate regime for economic growth, and the effect of financial institutions and constraints on economic growth. This conference is the third in a series of events part-financed by the European Commission through a High-Level Scientific Conferences contract, implemented through its Fifth Framework Programme (EC Contract No.: HPCF-CT-2001-00161 - 'Improving Human Potential' activity).

	6/5/2005		Understanding the Recovery Rates on Defaulted Securities - The Industry Matters , London
			This study documents the empirical determinants of the recovery rates on defaulted securities in the United States over the period 1982-1999, using the prices of defaulted securities at the time of default and at the time of emergence from default or from bankruptcy. The findings of the study suggest that, in addition to the seniority and security of equities, industry conditions at the time of default are important determinants of recovery rates. During periods when the industry is distressed (when the median annual return to equity in the industry is less than - 30%) the recovery rate is lower than in a healthy state of the industry by 10 to 20 cents on a dollar. A better liquidity position of other firms in the same industry is also found to imply a higher rate of recovery. The results of the study underscore the existence of substantial variability in the recovery rates of equities, in the cross-section of securities as well as in the time-series, and suggest that in order to capture recovery risk, the next generation of credit risk models should include an industry factor in addition to the factor representing the firm value or the default process.

	12/5/2005		Immigration, Jobs and Wages: Theory, Evidence and Opinion , London
			For domestic residents, who remain unsure of its consequences, rising immigration can generate feelings of fear and anxiety. They suspect that waves of newcomers may reap the rewards of others’ hard work. Economists, in turn, have conducted extensive research in an attempt to establish whether such fears are justified. The perceived complexities of economic analysis have meant that the public debate has tended to ignore some simple and fundamental results. In their Report, Christian Dustmann and Albrecht Glitz provide a brief historical overview of Europe’s migration experience since World War II. They present a simple economic model that illustrates the various channels by which immigration can affect the host countries’ economies. They discuss the difficulties that occur with empirical measurement of the possible effects of immigration, and provide an extensive discussion of the existing literature. Policy is likely to be less influenced by empirical facts established by academic research than by opinion and attitude of the voting population about immigration. In the Report Dustmann and Glitz continue to investigate attitudes to immigration and its effects on wages, employment and wealth redistribution, and how these attitudes are related to individuals’ socio-economic characteristics as well as macro indicators, like employment and GDP. The debate about the effects of immigration is an important one, with issues involved being complex and sometimes not easily accessible. Unfortunately, this debate is often uninformed and based on anecdotes and opinion rather than on facts. This Report was written for a non-specialised audience. It makes a significant contribution by extending and consolidating knowledge and understanding of the possible effects of immigration.

	20/5/2005		Agglomeration Economics and Regional Growth , Cagliari
			The purpose of this workshop is to promote a discussion on the themes concerning the agglomeration of economic and technological activities and their impact on local economic growth. Contributions are expected to include research on spatial interdependencies and integration, local externalities, industrial and service districts, technological poles, knowledge networks, regional economic growth, local labour markets and labour mobility. Confirmed keynote speakers are Antonio Ciccone, Gianmarco Ottaviano, Stephen Parente, Diego Puga and Jacques-François Thisse. This conference forms part of CEPR's research programme in International Trade. We gratefully acknowledge financial support provided by CEPII, INED, INRA, Paris-Jourdan Sciences-Economiques and CRENOS, which also hosts this event.

	22/5/2005		5th Spring School in Economic Geography , Cagliari
			This programme is designed to foster intellectual exchanges between PhD students, young and more mature researchers in economic geography (in a broad sense). Both theoretical and empirical contributions, completed or in progress, will be considered. Each presentation will benefit from a specific discussant and large space will be given to both formal and informal discussions. Presentations should take place in English. Preference will be given to submissions from PhD students and young researchers. Potential participants should note that this Spring School is taking place immediately after the Conference 'Agglomeration economies and regional growth'. Attendance at one event, however, does not guarantee attendance at the other but we shall try to facilitate the organisation for those who plan to attend both. This Spring School forms part of CEPR's research programme in International Trade. We gratefully acknowledge financial support provided by CRENOS which also hosts this event. We would like also thank CEPII, INED, INRA and Paris-Jourdan Sciences-Economiques for their financial support.

	23/5/2005		International Conference on Competition, Stability and Integration in European Banking , Brussels
			This conference will include theoretical, empirical and policy oriented papers on competition and stability in the banking industry in the context of progressing financial integration in Europe. Its two objectives are 1) to present the state of the art of international research on the economics of banking, in particular on the important nexus between market structures and systemic stability, and 2) to provide a forum in which industry experts, policy makers and researchers can exchange their views. The conference is part of the ECB-CFS research network on "Capital Markets and Financial Integration in Europe" and is part of the Research Training Network on "Competition Policy in International Markets" supported by the European Community's Human Potential Programme (EC Contract no. HPRN-CT-2002-00224, CPIM).

	25/5/2005		European Summer Symposium in International Macroeconomics 2005 (ESSIM) , Cyprus
			The thirteenth CEPR European Summer Symposium in International Macroeconomics (ESSIM) will take place on 25 - 28 May 2005. The meeting will be hosted by the Central Bank of Cyprus at Hotel Amathus in Limassol. ESSIM is an annual meeting that brings together about 60 economists from across Europe and key researchers from outside the region. It provides a unique opportunity for macroeconomists from different universities and countries to discuss research in a relaxed atmosphere and to develop long-term collaborative relationships. Another important aim of ESSIM is to provide young researchers with the opportunity to meet and discuss their work with senior economists.

	26/5/2005		Sixth CEPR Conference on Applied Industrial Organization , Munich
			This is the Sixth CEPR Conference on Applied Industrial Organization which will be part-funded by the European Commission's Marie Curie Actions for Conferences and Training Courses; the European Patent Office; Lexecon; INNO-tec; Ludwig-Maximilians University; and the Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforshung . This series aims to contribute to an analytical understanding of the issues raised by the new economy and their impacts on the wealth of economies and peoples, develop empirical protocols and tests of economic models, promote the exchange and the dissemination of results at the forefront of research, and finally, re-evaluate current competition and regulation policies.

	26/5/2005		Madrid Launch of 'Monitoring European Deregulation: Banking' Report , Madrid
			Five years ago, the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) produced a report on the Future of European Banking in which it concluded that European Union (EU) financial markets were still highly segmented. A lot has happened since then. Perhaps most significantly of all the European Union has launched its Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP). This new report reviews progress that has been made in eliminating regulatory and non-regulatory barriers to trade in banking services and assesses the degree to which European banking markets have become integrated. It also sets out some key policy recommendations that relate to the assessment of the FSAP and suggests that the pursuit of financial integration raises fundamental questions.

	27/5/2005		Macroeconomic Risk and Policy Responses - Seventh Bundesbank Spring Conference , Berlin
			Macroeconomic risks cannot be diversified away for the economy as a whole. Macroeconomic policy can mitigate or worsen the level of these risks or even be a source thereof. Much of macroeconomic policy can therefore be viewed as aggregate risk management. The aim of this conference is to study these issues in greater depth. How can observed prices for risks on asset markets be explained? How can we jointly understand macroeconomic facts; and facts on financial markets? To what extent is the banking system able to reduce or reallocate risk? What is the quantitative significance of these risks? What consequences do these insights have for the conduct in particular of monetary policy? What role do "asset price bubbles" play for monetary policy? What should be done about the risks of extreme events such as great depressions or financial crises? And how should monetary policy take into account the risks stemming from model misspecification? This meeting is organised under the framework of the Macroeconomic Policy Design for Monetary Union Research Training Network supported by the European Communities Human Potential Programme (EC Contract no. HPRN-CT-2002-00237, MAPMU)

	3/6/2005		CEPR/CEBR Conference on Labour Markets, Fiscal Policy and Structural Reform , Copenhagen
			The aim of the conference is to bring together active researchers from around the world, working on issues within the broad domains of market flexibility, fiscal policy and structural reform in Europe. It is motivated by Europe’s apparent difficulties in responding to the Lisbon Agenda, by the need to undertake structural reforms in labour markets, and by the perceived need to adopt a new fiscal regime or at least re-engineer the old one. The problems in doing any of these have been highlighted among others by the recent Kok report for the European Commission. Specific topics of interest to the conference include the Growth and Stability Pact; the impact of structural asymmetries and rigidities on economic performance; measures of labour market flexibility in Europe; fiscal responses to demographic changes; political economy models of structural or institutional reform, the strategies of the 'ins' versus 'outs', fiscal federalism, etc.

	7/6/2005		Innovation, Ownership and Competition: A CEPR/IUI Workshop , Stockholm
			The Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IUI) and the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) have organized a workshop on innovation, ownership and competition. Recent economic research indicates that the relation between innovative activities and the intensity of product market competition is ambiguous. The first aim of this workshop is to improve our understanding of what type of product market competition is more conducive to enhance innovative activities. Moreover, in the innovation industry we observe a significant amount of interaction between entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and large established firms; ranging from joint ventures, licensing to outright acquisitions. This interaction has, in the policy debate, been argued to be of great importance for the functioning of the innovation industry. The workshop's second aim is to contribute to the understanding of the effects on the innovation pattern and welfare of this interaction between entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and large established firms. The workshop is financed by the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation.

	13/6/2005		Needed: A Real Time Database for the Euro-Area (EABCN Workshop) , Brussels
			Real time assessment of the economic conditions is made on the basis of data which are, to a large extent, subsequently revised. Recent research has suggested that these revisions are large and can have a bearing on the decisions made as well as affect the assessment of their relevance. This observation raises a number of questions and to answer these, it is key to be in a position to reconstruct the historical perception of the economic environment, by considering the information available at each point in time, i.e. to focus on what is commonly called the 'real-time data'. Research on the topic is already substantial, but has mainly focused on the US since real time data are generally not available for the Euro area. For this reason the Euro Area Business Cycle Network (EABCN) has launched a real time database (RTDB) project. This project, initiated by the EABCN Scientific Committee, is a first step in the direction of the construction of a real time data base for the Euro area. The objective is to establish facts and to stimulate research on the broad topic of real time analysis. Cross-country heterogeneity of the data revision process makes real time data analysis particularly interesting in a multi-country monetary union and at the same time raises many challenges for the collection and the aggregation of real time data. The Workshop ''Needed: A Real Time database for the Euro-Area'' aims at bringing together all the people involved in the project and the research community at large with the intent of discussing research on the broad topic of real time analysis with a particular focus to the challenges to face for the construction of a Euro Area Real Time Database. The workshop will be partly dedicated to the presentation of papers on different aspects of real time assessment of the economic conditions under data uncertainty and on the implications for monetary policy and partly dedicated to a discussion of the design of the project for the construction of Euro area data basis.

	16/6/2005		European Research Workshop on International Trade (ERWIT) , Rotterdam
			ERWIT is an annual workshop that brings together international economists from across Europe and key researchers from outside the region. It provides a unique opportunity to discuss research in a relaxed atmosphere. The meeting will disseminate the findings of recent research on international trade, and presentations often involve exploratory rather than finished papers. The programme runs for four days and combines workshop sessions with time for collaboration and consultation. Another important aim of ERWIT is to provide young researchers with the opportunity to meet and discuss their work with senior economists.

	17/6/2005		Institutions, Development and Transition , Istanbul
			The "Institutions and Economic Performance" Programme is organizing jointly with the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD) an international conference on the theme "Institutions, Development and Transition". CEPR has in the past jointly organized with the William Davidson Institute the "International Annual Conference on Transition Economies". This tenth conference reflects the new research orientation of the "Institutions and Economic Performance" Programme. The conference intends to create a forum for leading researchers to present new research on comparative institutions and development. There will also be a policy component to the conference around the theme of institutional change in Turkey and the challenges of future entry in the European Union. This conference is supported by the Ford Foundation and EBRD.

	20/6/2005		ECB/CEPR Labour Market Workshop 2005 "Labour Markets in an Enlarged European Union: What Would Raise Employment?" , Frankfurt
			Research on European labour markets is of particular interest for the ECB as their functioning affects the economic environment in which the ECB's monetary policy of maintaining price stability is conducted. In this regard, labour markets have a particular role to play for the euro area's ability to adjust flexibly to changes in economic circumstances. The enlargement of the EU has changed the framework conditions for an efficient factor allocation in Europe and has created new opportunities as well as challenges for labour market adjustment and employment creation, which require a thorough analysis. The following themes will be explored: Challenges for labour markets in the new EU Member States, Challenges of enlargement for labour markets in the old EU Member States and What would raise employment in the enlarged EU?

	20/6/2005		First European Summer Symposium in Behavioural Economics , Toulouse
			This is the first event of the RTN project "European Network for the Advancement of Behavioural Economics". The network aims to advance this emerging field of behavioural economics in Europe and provide high quality training and a transfer of knowledge to young researchers just entering the field. The network will facilitate the development of a critical mass of the brightest young researchers by concentrating the currently highly fragmented expertise in Europe. It will bring together economists and psychologists from Europe and the United States, and foster the collaboration between theoretical and empirical researchers. The symposium forms part of a Research Training Network (contract no. MRTM-CT-2003-505223) funded by the European Commission through the Marie Curie Actions of its Sixth Framework Programme.

	22/6/2005		City Forum: International Financial Adjustment - US External Adjustment Is Easier Than You Think , London
			Understanding the dynamic process of adjustment of a country's external balance is one of the most important questions for international economists; given the current level of global imbalances, this is a pressing concern for policy-makers as well. Using a newly constructed dataset Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas and Hélène Rey have demonstrated the importance of ‘valuation effects’ in understanding the adjustment process. Their findings challenge conventional wisdom in three ways: · valuation effects account, on average, for 30% of US adjustment towards long-run external debt sustainability · the large revaluation that has taken place since early 2002 through the fall in the dollar means imbalances are now smaller than in the 1980s · valuation effects can help forecast exchange rates: their model consistently and decisively beats the 'random walk' model that is the generally accepted benchmark for forecasting exchange rates.

	29/6/2005		Immigration, Jobs and Wages: Theory, Evidence and Opinion , Berlin
			The talk summarises the key findings of a new CReAM/CEPR report "Immigration, Jobs and Wages: Theory, Evidence and Opinion". It commences with a brief historical overview of Europe's migration experience since World War II and presents a simple economic model that shows how immigration can affect the host countries' economies. It is the measurement of the effects of immigration that has proved to be a difficult task. This presentation will briefly point out the challenges researchers face when conducting empirical analysis that attempts to measure the effects of immigration on economic outcomes of the resident population, and discuss the advantages of different methodological approaches. The author will provide a brief summary of the existing empirical literature that assesses the effects of immigration on jobs and wages, and discuss the latest developments that have been made in this field of research. Will policymakers take account of such research when proposing new immigration laws and regulations? They are more likely to be influenced by the subjective opinion of domestic residents. Based on detailed survey data for 22 European countries, the talk will conclude by discussing perceptions individuals have as to the likely effects of immigration on employment, wages, redistribution, and efficiency gains, and point out how these are related to macroeconomic indicators.

	29/6/2005		War and the Macroeconomy , Barcelona
			With support from the Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional (CREI) at UPF, Barcelona, and the CEPR’s Economic History Initiative, the “War and the Macroeconomy” workshop aims to bring together economists, economic historians and political scientists working on the economic consequences of warfare. It will provide a forum for discussion of recent research about the impact of war on macroeconomic performance. Some of the possible topics include: how wars affect economic growth and international trade; war’s impact on financial markets and monetary arrangements; the rise of the warfare state and institutional development; implications of war for fiscal policy and public debt; how terrorism and war affect happiness, as reflected in survey data; and the role of war in stimulating inventive activity.

	4/7/2005		European Summer Symposium in Economic Theory - ESSET 2005 , Gerzensee
			The European Summer Symposium in Economic Theory is an annual event that brings forty to fifty economists together for a week at the Studienzentrum Gerzensee in Switzerland. It is organized by CEPR jointly with the Studienzentrum. The focal points of the meeting are a small number of special workshops which determine the broad themes of the meeting. This year, there will be two half-day workshops each week. The workshops in the first week will be on Two-Sided Markets and Organisations. In the second week the workshops will be on Complementarities and Games and on The Empirics of Complementarities.

	14/7/2005		Accessing International Equity Markets: What Firms From Which Countries Go Abroad? , London
			Stijn Claessens presents the results of CEPR Discussion Paper No. 3301 'Accessing International Equity Markets: What Firms from Which Countries Go Abroad?' that examines the determinants of accessing international equity markets for a large sample of firms from 53 countries. An element of the globalization trend has been the migration of securities market activities abroad, particularly in the case of emerging markets. The London Stock Exchange, for example, has benefited from the movement of Russian firms to list here. With foreign listing, firms can obtain access to more liquid markets, attract funds more easily and at lower cost, and tap into wider investor bases. In addition, firms that operate under weak minority shareholder protection frameworks might use the foreign listing as a signal to their shareholders that they are willing to protect minority shareholder rights. The results of this study indicate that firm characteristics - size, growth, valuation, performance, and foreign activity - are important determinants for firms from developed countries, but less so for firms from developing countries. The authors report that, depending on whether the country is already open to international markets, firms from less developed countries use the cross listing to bond to higher legal and other standards. Listing abroad is also associated with an increase in sales growth, higher valuation and return on assets, and lower leverage, although these effects diminish following listing.

	15/7/2005		22nd CEPR Economic Policy Roundtable , London
			The CEPR Economic Policy Roundtable provides a forum in which leaders from the corporate sector discuss the issues arising at the semi-annual European Council meetings. It brings together CEPR Corporate Members, major funders and Research Fellows with high-level policy-makers from the European Commission and elsewhere, to discuss economic issues that will feature on the European Council agenda and to communicate views on these issues to European policy-makers.

	18/7/2005		CEPR/Studienzentrum Gerzensee European Summer Symposium in Financial Markets (ESSFM) , Gerzensee
			The CEPR/Studienzentrum Gerzensee European Summer Symposium in Financial Markets (ESSFM) will include daily seminars in which participants present their work, as well as less formal seminars scheduled at the beginning of the Symposium. A substantial amount of time is reserved for independent work and collaborative research, which provides participants with a unique opportunity to interact and discuss each other’s research. In addition, several mornings will be devoted to 'focus sessions', each of which concentrates on the latest developments in a specific area of research.

	23/8/2005		CEPR Annual Reception at the Econometric Society World Congress 2005 , London


	9/9/2005		The Ninth CEPR/ESI Annual Conference: Structural Reforms and Economic Growth in Europe , Frankfurt am Main
			The Ninth CEPR/European Summer Institute Annual Conference will take place on 9/10 September 2005 and will be hosted by the European Central Bank. The CEPR/ESI Annual Conferences are also sponsored by the Banco de Portugal, Bank of Finland, the National Bank of Belgium, the National Bank of Hungary, the Nederlandsche Bank and the Oesterreichische Nationalbank. The topic of the 2005 CEPR/ESI Annual Conference will be ‘Structural Reforms and Economic Growth in Europe' and will cover the following sub-areas: (1) the Flexibility of European Labour Markets and Labour Mobility within the EU, (2) the Flexibility of Product Markets, (3) Financial Integration in the EU and the FSAP and (4) the Reform of Pension Systems in the EU. The intention is to have three policy lectures on these sub-areas by senior central bankers. Furthermore, there will be three survey papers on the above topics by reputed academics. Finally, the conference closes with a panel session of senior central bankers as questioners and reputed academics as respondents.

	9/9/2005		CEPR Annual Public Policy Symposium 2005 , Bocconi, Italy
			This conference will be the sixth programme meeting of the Public Policy programme. Its goal is to provide a forum for high quality work in public economics and to bring together economists in the field from across Europe and key researchers from outside the region. Papers are invited in any area of public economics (including political economy and public policy issues in general). The conference hopes to provide a unique opportunity for researchers from different universities and countries to discuss their work in a relaxed atmosphere and to develop long-term collaborative relationships. It also aims to provide young researchers with the opportunity to meet and discuss their work with senior economists.

	13/9/2005		Corporate Finance and Governance: Europe-Japan Comparisons , Tokyo
			CEPR has developed an extensive programme on corporate governance in Europe. The Research Institute for Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) has supported a programme on corporate change and governance in Japan led by Hideaki Miyajima. A book summarizing the RIETI research programme is forthcoming from Oxford University Press. This conference, organized by Jenny Corbett and Hideaki Miyajima, will bring together researchers from Europe and Japan to consider the lessons from experience in both locations. Financial support has also been provided by the Japan Foundation and, for UK participants, the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. Papers will address issues which include corporate governance and firm performance, corporate restructuring, financial structures and M&A activity.

	15/9/2005		European Summer Symposium in Labour Economics 2005 (ESSLE) , Ammersee
			ESSLE is designed to bring together economists in the field from across Europe and key researchers from outside the region. The symposium provides a unique opportunity for researchers from different universities and countries to discuss their work in a relaxed atmosphere and to develop long-term collaborative relationships. Another important aim of ESSLE is to provide young researchers with the opportunity to meet and discuss their work with senior economists. Support from the UK DWP is gratefully acknowledged.

	15/9/2005		Final Conference of the RTN Project on Financing Retirement in Europe: Public Sector Reform and Financial Market Development , London
			This conference is the final networking event of the Research Training Network on 'Financing Retirement in Europe: Public Sector Reform and Financial Market Development'. It will deal, from different perspectives, with the reform of systems of financing retirement and is intended to discuss the results of the research conducted by the RTN teams and to disseminate these to fellow academics and practitioners working in the area. The conference has been organised under the RTN contract (Contract No HPRN-CT-2001-00225), funded through the Improving Human Potential activity of the European Commission's Fifth Framework Programme.

	22/9/2005		Currency Management in Asia: The Myth, Reality and Future , London
			The new ICMB/CEPR Report is written by Hans Genberg (Hong Kong Monetary Authority), Robert McCauley (Bank for International Settlements), Yung Chul Park (Korea University, Seoul) and Avinash Persaud (Intelligence Capital Limited). Written by a group that combines extensive practical experience with analytical rigour, the seventh title in the Geneva Reports on the World Economy series focuses on the recent rapid build-up of official reserves in Asia. The Report examines the relationship of global current account imbalances with exchange rate policies in East Asian countries, and the implications for reserve management, exchange rates and interest rates. The analysis gives a number of controversial conclusions. The authors argue that pressure on the accumulating countries, and China in particular, to revalue their currencies is unlikely to lead to any significant reduction in the current account imbalance between the United States and the rest of the world. Instead, if successful, such pressure could have dangerous consequences for Asian countries and the global economy. The authors also show that the much anticipated reserve diversification of Asian central banks is further advanced, and with different implications, than many believe.

	30/9/2005		First Economic History Panel - Past, Present, and Policy: 'International Financial Integration: The Role of Intermediaries' , Vienna
			The Economic History Panel is a project that is jointly sponsored by the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and CEPR. Its motivation is the considerable advances that Economic History has achieved in the past, and the growing recognition of its contribution to shape policy responses. The topic of the first meeting will be 'International Financial Integration: The Role of Intermediaries'. Its goal is to review the historical role of financial intermediaries in shaping the patterns of financial globalization. Priority will be given to bringing about new facts or data that have a potential for challenging existing views and fostering policy debate. Policy relevant implications will be stressed. For more information on the Past, Present, Policy discussion series, please visit http://www.cepr.org/research/Past_Present_Policy.doc

	7/10/2005		Second Conference of the Network: Economics of Education and Education Policy in Europe (EEEPE) , Uppsala
			This is the second meeting of a research programme which will extend the frontier of research on the economics of education and education policy in European countries. The network will pull together theoretical and empirical concepts to provide new cross-country evidence on connections between education and income, and on widening access in higher education. It will result in an improved knowledge of what improves pupil performance, and on the effectiveness of teachers. It will examine the relative performance of boys and girls, and how this has been altering through time. Finally the project will be concerned with ways in which institutional differences in education systems affect the observed results. This conference forms part of a Research Training Network (contract no. MRTM-CT-2003-504796) funded through the European Communities Human Potential Programme.

	13/10/2005		Competition and Efficiency in Payment and Security Settlement Systems , Helsinki
			Payments and securities settlement systems are currently undergoing a rapid transformation, partly because of technological change (electronization), partly because of consolidation, especially in Europe where the aim is to replace the current fragmented payment and settlement systems with a more unified structure. These developments promise great efficiency gains but may also pose serious regulatory challenges. Recent developments in the economics of networks and two-sided markets have provided new and promising tools for the study of problems in this field. The objective of this conference is to provide a forum for new theoretical and empirical research on the economics of payment and settlement systems, especially from the efficiency and regulatory points of view.

	19/10/2005		Policy Conference for STREP Project, 'Competition and Policy Foundations for Trade Reform, Regulatory Reform and Sustainable Development' (CPFTR) , Paris


	19/10/2005		Booms and Busts in Financial Markets: What Drives the Price of Debt? , CEPR
			Many financial assets are made up of debt owed by market agents to each other. As these claims and obligations link agents together, the values of debt and assets, the availability of credit, and asset prices all fluctuate together. These interconnections amplify booms and intensify financial crashes. In this study Hyun Song Shin explores what drives the price of debt in a financial system where the value of assets and the price of debt are interlinked. Shin argues that in a tightly knit financial system, booms and busts are linked by the movement of asset price changes to the strength of balance sheets, and the spillover effects of these changes are felt across the whole market. Just as house buyers paying exorbitant prices have positive effects on other's assets, the distressed selling by defaulting homeowners serve to undermine the financial positions of other market agents. This study provides a unifying framework that can accommodate both types of phenomena, and charts the effects both 'on the way up' and 'on the way down'.

	21/10/2005		Economic Policy Panel , London


	21/10/2005		The Building Blocks of Effective Financial Systems , Rome
			This is the second joint CEPR and Banca D'Italia meeting. Widespread consensus has emerged that a well-developed financial system is the key to economic performance. Less clear is what are the essential building blocks of an effective financial system. Recent research emphasizes certain institutions, such as investor protection legislation and accounting standards, but also social capital and culture. This conference aims to advance the understanding of the role and relative importance of these building blocks. We welcome theoretical and empirical papers that bear on these or closely related issues. Subjects will include: 1. How do the different building blocks of a financial system interact? 2. How can the links between these building blocks and financial development be measured? 3. Is it possible to identify the channels through which various factors influence the development of financial systems? 4. How can reforms be designed to build or improve the institutions that support financial systems? 5. To what extent can the experience of successful countries be "exported" to other countries?

	27/10/2005		A Presentation and Discussion on Network Access in Telecommunications , Brussels
			Intervention by regulators that force network operators to grant their rivals access to their own assets are some of the most controversial in regulation and competition law. In telecommunications markets we have, in recent years, seen concerted attempts by regulation to impose "access obligations" on one or more firms in the market, obliging them to make parts of their networks available to competition on terms which are defined by the regulator rather than commercial negotiation. CEPR's Industrial Organisation Programme has been an active participant in European policy debates on telecommunications regulation since the Centre launched is series of reports on Monitoring European Deregulation with a study of telecommunications regulation in 1998. CEPR and Vodafone are now pleased to invite you to a seminar in Brussels on Thursday 27th October at which Janusz Ordover and Jerry Hausman will present and debate various aspects of regulating network access. Topics to be discussed will include the theory and practical outcome of mandatory access network unbundling, the economics of access negotiation in oligopolistic access markets.

	28/10/2005		First Workshop of the Economic History RTN on 'Europe's Growth and Development Experience' , University of Warwick
			This is the first annual workshop of the Research Training Network "Unifying the European Experience: Historical Lessons of Pan European Development," forms part of CEPR's Economic History Initiative and is funded by the European Commission's FP6 Marie Curie Actions (contract no. MRTN-CT-2004-512439). The event is organized by Stephen Broadberry (University of Warwick and CEPR) and Kevin O'Rourke (Trinity College, Dublin and CEPR). The theme for this workshop is "Europe's Growth and Development Experience". Paper submissions are encouraged for the following five research sub-themes : Theme 1. A pan-European database Theme 2. European growth from the mid-nineteenth century Theme 3. European growth in the very long run Theme 4. The history of European integration Theme 5. Europe's changing position in the world Papers will be selected by a Scientific Committee that includes, in addition to the organizers, Giovanni Federico (European University Institute) and Piotr Franaszek (Jagiellonian University Cracow).

	15/11/2005		'Policy Dissemination Meeting for 'Competition and Policy Foundations for Trade Reform, Regulatory Reform and Sustainable Development' (CPFTR) , Antalya


	16/11/2005		Rising Government Debt - Economic and Policy Implications , CEPR, London
			Fiscal policy is increasingly a source of concern. Most OECD governments have witnessed a significant deterioration in deficits and debt over the last few years and this show few signs of imminent reversal. Looking further ahead demographic change provides even more pessimistic forecasts. Concern about fiscal policy contrasts with the success of monetary policy where governments, through institutional reform and policy changes, seem to have successfully lowered inflation and inflation expectations. Andrew Scott will review the reasons why fiscal policy has proved less successful than monetary policy and focus in particular on the behaviour of government debt. He will discuss the difficulties of imposing fiscal rules, the need for flexibility and discuss how markets, and in particular debt management, can help provide some constraint on debt. The key issue to be examined is whether, when looking further ahead, rising government debt will jeopardise the maintenance of low inflation. Using data over the past three hundred years, Andrew examines the role of government debt in triggering long swings in inflation and draws implications for the next decade.

	17/11/2005		The Effectiveness of Competition Policy: Issues and Methods , Paris
			The workshop, supported by the European Science Foundation, explores in a more systematic way, and on a larger scale, the scientific issues raised by the evaluation of competition policy. Currently, in existing literature, different approaches are followed for evaluating competition policy. For instance, the event study methodology essentially measures the impact of antitrust decisions on financial markets; the structural methodology proposes to develop a cost-benefit analysis of the antitrust decision-making. To study further these approaches, the proposed workshop invites papers and contributions that help to expand the existing literature and methodologies. The workshop will consist of presentations of papers, roundtables and discussion groups. The objective is clearly to draw the lines of an agenda for future research.

	28/11/2005		Productivity and the Business Cycle: Evidence for Europe and the US (EABCN) , Helsinki
			A workshop on comparative analysis of productivity changes over the business cycle in the Euro-area and in US will be held at the Bank of Finland. This meeting is being held as part of the work of the Euro Area Business Cycle Network (EABCN). Potential topics for the workshop include:Comparative business cycle analysis, What role does productivity play in the cycle, Sectoral productivity and IT usage, Sources of productivity movements, The effects of productivity changes on the natural rate of interest and their implications for the conduct of monetary policy, The effects of productivity changes on employment and wages and Measurement issues. The Workshop aims to bring together all people involved in the EABCN project and the research community at large with the aim of discussing current research on some of the issues highlighted above in order to provide robust evidence about the factors affecting productivity changes and the appropriate policies needed to foster productivity in both areas. The workshop will be partly dedicated to the presentation of papers on different aspects of the above list of topics and on the implications for monetary policy of productivity changes.

	28/11/2005		Would WTO Multilateral Trade Reform Benefit Sub-Saharan Africa? , CEPR, London
			There has been much debate about whether low-income countries, particularly in Africa, should support the Doha Development Agenda aimed at liberalizing trade multilaterally. Concerns include the erosion of tariff preferences for their exports to the EU, and higher import prices for net food-importers. There are, however, offsetting forces: improvements in other components of their terms of trade, and the gains from agreeing to own-country reform. The overall impact is thus an empirical question, and needs to be addressed with an empirical model of the global economy. Anderson and his colleagues have used the World Bank’s LINKAGE model to examine the costs and market consequences first of current trade barriers and agricultural subsidies, and then of possible partial reform outcomes from the Doha round. The results suggest that moving to global free trade in merchandise would boost real incomes in sub-Saharan Africa proportionately more than in other developing countries or in high-income countries, despite the deterioration in the terms of trade in parts of Africa. Farm employment and output, the real value of agricultural and food exports, the real returns to farm land and unskilled labour, and real net farm incomes would all rise in the region, thereby alleviating poverty. A Doha partial liberalization of both agricultural and non-agricultural trade could take the region some way towards those desirable outcomes, but more so the more both rich and poor countries reduce their applied tariffs. Kym Anderson will discuss these results on 28 November. His talk will be based on work with Will Martin and Dominique van der Mensbrugghe, reported in CEPR Discussion Paper no. 5049, ‘Would Multilateral Trade Reform Benefit Sub-Saharan Africans?’ (http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP5049.asp). Anderson is a CEPR Research Fellow, and Lead Economist in the International Trade Unit of the World Bank's Development Research Group.

	30/11/2005		Corporate Governance and Corporate Mobility in the European Union , London
			The Centros, Überseering and Inspire Arts decisions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) concerning the freedom of establishment firms have caused considerable excitement in the European Union (EU). Colin Mayer presents the first empirical study of corporate mobility within the EU in the wake of the new rulings. It provides clear evidence that corporate mobility has arrived in Europe. Using data on all new company formations in the UK between 1997 and 2005 the authors find a large increase in new incorporations of limited liability firms in the UK originating from other EU Member States. The increase is associated with the ECJ rulings. The analysis shows that corporate mobility is driven by differences in total incorporation costs. The study also finds evidence of regulatory competition between Member States which seems to be triggered by corporate mobility. The evidence suggests that the ECJ has set off a race between EU Member States to provide low-cost company law for limited liability companies.

	30/11/2005		The Impact of Turkey's Accession to the EU , Berlin
			Although the negotiation process for Turkish EU membership has now been started, great uncertainties about the membership still prevail. Moreover, the public opinion towards Turkey's membership is currently rather skeptical in many member states. Professor Widgrén's talk addresses these issues. He will discuss the economic effects of Turkish membership as well as Turkey's impact on EU institutions, budget and the nature of the Union beyond membership of 27.

	6/12/2005		Divergence of Euro Area Economies , Morgan Stanley, Canary Wharf
			Can the euro survive? Are member countries so diverse that a single monetary policy will be destabilising? Or will the single currency generate forces for greater economic integration? This talk examines the sources of inflation divergence across European Monetary Union member countries over the 1999-2004 period. While the annual dispersion in inflation rates are found to be not much different to the variation across US regions, inflation differentials in the euro area are much more persistent, such that real exchange rate movements are quite substantial. Philip Lane shows that EMU has indeed contributed to greater economic integration - however, economic linkages with the rest of the world have also been growing strongly, especially with the rising prominence of China in world trade, such that the relative importance of intra-EMU trade has not dramatically increased. He also argues that a severe economic downturn or financial crisis in a member country may induce a move towards greater fiscal risk-sharing among the member countries, since private capital markets are an inadequate substitute for fiscal co-insurance. Indeed, the policy response to such a national slump will be the proving ground for the political viability of EMU.

	7/12/2005		Young Researchers Workshop , Brussels


	8/12/2005		Competition Policy, International Trade and Development: The International Dimensions , Brussels
			The steady progress of global economic integration and the dramatic changes in technology in the past two decades raise difficult issues for competition policy. Researchers from two CEPR projects will be meeting in Brussels in December to discuss these issues. The projects focus on the international dimensions of competition policy. To take advantage of the presence of some of Europe's leading researchers, we will hold a public discussion meeting on Thursday, 8 December. The morning will open with a roundtable on 'International Competition Policy: What's Next?', featuring Lars-Hendrik Röller, Frédéric Jenny and Luke Froeb, and moderated by Wolfgang Münchau. This will be followed by presentations by Simon Evenett and Marc Ivaldi, leaders of the CEPR projects, who will draw out the implications of their research for international competition policy. The discussion will feature both the economic and the legal dimensions of international competition policy.

	9/12/2005		An International Research and Policy Symposium on 'Competition Policy for International Development, Growth and Trade' , Brussels
			The conference will provide a forum for international researchers, network members, and policy makers to present or discuss work on the consequences of the internationalization of trade and of production for market performance and competition policy. The first day will consist of plenary sessions: leading scholars will present an overview of recent research and its implications for competition policy; key EC, EU national, and US policy makers will offer their perspectives on national and international competition policy. The internationalization of trade and of production affects the competitiveness of firms and has led to new business models, corporate re-organization, and new regulations that change the environment in which firms compete. This conference aims to enhance our understanding of these interactions and their consequences for competition policy. Papers will be presented that address the following questions, amongst others. Will market thickness enhance or hinder the likelihood of collusion? Does competition in markets with intermediation deserve specific treatment? Will the re-organization of firms increase or reduce efficiency, the competitiveness of markets, and consumer welfare? What are the relationships between sectoral regulation, competition law, and trade reforms? What are the political economy forces that will facilitate or hinder cooperation between competition agencies? This event is held in conjunction with the Third Workshop of the Research Training Network “Competition Policy in International Markets” supported in part by the European Community’s Human Potential Programme (EC Contract no. HPRN-CT-2002-00224, CPIM) and the final academic conference of the Competition Policy Foundations for Trade Reform, Regulatory Reform, and Sustainable Development (CPFTR) project supported by DG Research (EC Contract no. SCS8-CT-2004-502564).

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