International Economic Policy Coordination

This volume, based on a conference organised jointly by the Centre for Economic Policy Research and the National Bureau of Economic Research, examines recent developments in the study of international economic policy coordination. Eight papers were presented, and the meeting concluded with a panel discussion on the prospects for international policy coordination. In the past two years, there has been a revival of interest in the study of the international coordination of economic policy, no doubt encouraged by the current debate about the mix of monetary and fiscal policy in the United States and Europe. This volume presents some of the best current research on this important topic. The papers focus on several issues of importance in determining the desirability of international policy coordination: the nature of the transmission effects by which one country's policies affect another country; the trade-off between the current and future effects of policies, and the credibility of government policy when undertaken unilaterally or coordinated internationally.