Economic Policy 20: 0020 - Tapa blanda

The Economic Policy series is the premier source of analysis of economic affairs. Published in association with the European Economic Association, it is written for all those with an informed interest in policy prblems and accommodates a wide range of views. Edited in London and Paris, Economic Policy emphasises the possibilities for cross--country comparisons; the balance between conflict and co--operation in national policy formulation; and the constraints imposed on individual economies by their integration in the world economy. Economic Policy has attracted much press attention and has been at the forefront of policy debates.

David Begg is Professor of Economics at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a Research Fellow in CEPR's International Macroeconomics and Transition Economics research programmes. He is a recognized authority on monetary, fiscal and exchange-rate issues; has written extensively on the EMS and EMU, and undertook a major study for the IMF on monetary and exchange-rate policies in economies in transition. He has also served as an Adviser to the European Commission, the Bank of England, HM Treasury, and to Committees of the House of Lords and House of Commons. He contributes regularly to the annual CEPR Report "Monitoring European Integration," most recently the 1997 Report "EMU: Getting the End-game Right."

Jurgen Von Hagen was Assistant and Associate Professor of Business Economics at Indiana University between 1987-92, and Professor of Economics at the University of Mannheim between 1992-6. He has been Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for European Integration Studies at the University of Bonn since 1996. He was the first winner of the Gossen Prize of the Verein fur Sozialpolitik - the German Economic Association - in 1997. He has published more than 40 articles in international, refereed academic journals and over 60 contributions to non-refereed journals and books. He is Co-Editor of "Open Economics Review" and a member of the editorial board of the "Journal of International Finance and Economics" and the "European Economic Review." His consulting activities include positions at the IMF, the European Commission, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Interamerican Bank.

Charles Wyplosz is Professor of Economics at the Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva, and a Research Fellow in CEPR's International Macroeconomics and Transition Economics research programmes. He has published widely on exchange rates, macroeconomic policy and labor markets. He serves on the Scientific Councils of NIESR in London, EPRU at the University of Copenhagen, and CES, University of Munich. He is a member of the editorial board of the "Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Annales d'Economie et de Statistiques," the "International Journal of Finance and Economics, Moneda y Credito" and "Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv." He is an adviser to the government of the Russian Federation and has been consultant to the lMF, the World Bank, the French government, the European Commission, the Harvard Institute for International Development, and the Committee for the Study of the Independence of the Bank of England.

Klaus F. Zimmermann is Professor of Economics and Director of SELAPO at the University of Munich; Co-Director of CEPR's Human Resources research programme; Associate Editor of the "European Economic Review," the "Journal of Applied Econometrics, Labor Economics," and "Recherches Economiques de Louvain." He is also Editor-in-Chief of the "Journal of Population Economics" and a Council member of the European Society for Population Economics and the European Economic Association. He has published on a variety of issues surrounding population change, migration, the labour market, education, technical progress, business survey analysis and microeconometrics. As a recognized authority in these areas he has also served as a consultant to the World Bank, the European Parliament, the German Parliament and the German Federal Government.