Abstract
The IMF Research Bulletin, a quarterly publication, selectively summarizes research and analytical work done by various departments at the IMF, and also provides a listing of research documents and other research-related activities, including conferences and seminars. The Bulletin is intended to serve as a summary guide to research done at the IMF on various topics, and to provide a better perspective on the analytical underpinnings of the IMF’s operational work.
The first annual IMF Research Conference was held in Washington, DC, on November 910, 2000. Organized by the Research Department of the IMF, this event brought together prominent researchers from various universities and institutions around the world and young researchers in the IMF to present and discuss papers on topics of current policy interest. The main themes of the conference were: private sector involvement in crisis resolution; monetary and exchange rate policies in crisis situations; the effects of adjustment programs on inequality, poverty and financial markets; and issues related to exchange rate regimes.
Maurice Obstfeld (University of California, Berkeley) delivered the first Mundell-Fleming Lecture in which he reevaluated the famed Mundell-Fleming model, a paradigm of international monetary economics for several decades, from a current perspective. Robert Mundell (Columbia University), winner of last year’s Nobel Prize in Economics and a former staff member of the IMF Research Department, delivered a keynote address.
A full report on the conference will appear in the next issue of this bulletin. A selection of the papers presented, along with comments and discussions, will be published in a special issue of IMF Staff Papers in 2001. The agenda and papers can be found in full-text format at http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/staffp/2000/00-00/arc.htm.