About GEI

The Global Economic Institutions (GEI) Research Programme is a research programme funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of Great Britain, which began in 1994 and which will run until 1999. The purpose of the programme is to study how existing global economic institutions and regimes operate, how they might be improved, and whether new institutions are needed.

Ten research projects began work in 1994, a further six began in 1995 and 1996. Details of these projects may be found elsewhere in this website. Activities of the programme also include a number of workshops and meetings. There are reports on past meetings in the articles in the programme newsletter, found elsewhere on this website. Future meetings are also advertised on this website.

A number of working papers have been published, and abstracts of these are to be found on this website.

Initial research in Phase 1 of the GEI Programme focused on the future of the Bretton Woods Institutions (the IMF and the World Bank); on the World Trade Organisation and the future of World trade regime; and on regionalism.

What role for the International Monetary Fund in a world of Globalised international finance? A highly successful two-day workshop was held in Cambridge in July 1995 on the role of the IMF and the future of the International Monetary System. There is a full report on that workshop in Issue Two of the Programme Newsletter. A followup conference is being organized by Professors Miller, Perraudin and Thomas on 11/12 July 1997, with a day of policy discussions at the Bank of England.

The future of the World Bank is also increasingly an issue of concern in a world in which private international capital markets seem capable of performing many of the Bank's tasks. An article by GEI Programme researcher Christopher Gilbert, putting forward many of the questions which the Bank must face, can be found in Issue Three of the Programme Newsletter. A conference on this issue will be held in London on 24 Jun 1997.

Some of the work in the GEI Programme concerns the World Trade Regime. A series of four study group meetings on new issues in international commercial policy which were held at Chatham House between September 1995 and January 1996,and a conference was held at the end of May 1996. (This meeting is described in Issue Four of the Programme Newsletter). In addition, a workshop was held on 2/3 May 1996 in London, on ‘Competition Regulation, Standards, and Trade Policy for Information and Telecommunications Services’. A report on this workshop can be found in Issue Four of the Programme Newsletter. Also, an article by GEI Programme Researcher Peter Holmes on ‘International Competition Policy and the World Trade Organization’ appeared in Issue Two of the newsletter discussed the looming clashes between national competition policies and the global trade regime administered by the WTO.

Finally, work in the GEI Programme is beginning on regionalism. Regionalism is on the rise in the world economy, but in two very different ways. In Europe, and to some extent in North America, we are seeing ‘deeper’ integration, of the ‘policy-led’ kind: the single European market, increasingly common European laws and regulations, and perhaps a common money, all administered by a supranational organization based in Brussels. In the Asia-Pacific region we are seeing ‘wider’ integration, of a ‘market-led’ kind, involving mutual, voluntary, support for extensive non-exclusionary trade liberalization, organized by national governments. Which kind of regionalism is preferable? What kinds of frictions can be expected when these very different kinds of regional groupings deal with each other at the global level? Is regionalism – of either kind – actually an obstacle to the pursuit of global objectives? A programme workshop was held on these issues in London in November 1995 and a report on this workshop is to be found in Issue Three of theProgramme Newsletter. A major conference on these issues, ‘Europe, East Asia, APEC and the ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) Process’ was held in London on 20/21 May 1997.

Other issues being tackled by research projects in the GEI Programme include: international macroeconomic policy coordination, international regulation of global financial markets, and the internal organizations of global economic institutions: how they differ, how they respond to external pressures, and how they might be reformed.

An information pack (containing details of the research projects in the Programme); past issues of this newsletter; and information on Programme workshops and meetings are all available from:

The GEI Coordinator
Centre for Economic Policy Research
90-98 Goswell Road
London EC1V 7RR UK
tel: (44 20) 7878 2900
fax: (44 20) 7878 2999
email: gei@cepr.org