Abstract
This first issue of Volume 51 for 2004 includes a new paper by Peter B. Clark and Jacques J. Polak, along with a tribute from the Editor to Mr. Polak in honor of his 90th birthday. This issue also launches a new featured section, "Data Issues," which will be devoted in future issues to on-going discussions of the latest in econometric and statistical tools for economists, data puzzles, and other related topics of interest to researchers.
In this issue, IMF Staff Papers begins an occasional section on data problems. We normally publish papers providing primarily analysis of preassembled data. With this special section we break with that tradition and indicate to researchers that we are interested in publishing papers on data construction, collection, and reporting as it applies to topics of research interest.
We anticipate the work published in this section will include papers on both post-World War II data and historical data. Topics to be published will likely include data puzzles and anomalies as well as papers like the following “Export and Import Price Indices,” by Jemma Dridi and Kimberly Zieschang.