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Annual IMF Research Conferences






Fifth IMF Jacques Polak Annual Research Conference: Policies, Institutions, and Instability
IMF Headquarters (R-710), Washington DC
November 4–5, 2004


Last Updated: November 17, 2004

The International Monetary Fund held its Fifth Jaques Polak Annual Research Conference at its headquarters in Washington, DC, on November 4 and 5, 2004. The conference was intended to provide a forum for discussing innovative research in international economics, undertaken both by IMF staff and by outside economists, and to facilitate the exchange of views among researchers and policymakers.

This year's conference was devoted to Policies, Institutions, and Instability, and their linkage to growth and crises in a global environment. The papers presented at the conference are provided below in PDF format.

Program

Day 1: Thursday, November 4

9:00 am Opening Remarks:

Agustín Carstens, Deputy Managing Director, IMF

Jacques Polak (IMF)

 

Session 1 (9:15-10:45)─Finance

Chair: Leslie Lipschitz (IMF)

 

"Systemic Risk and Growth" by Romain Rancière (IMF), Frank Westermann (University of Munich), and Aaron Tornell (University of California, Los Angeles)

Discussant: Carmen Reinhart (University of Maryland)

 

"Financial Liberalization and Consumption Volatility in Developing Countries" by Andrei Levchenko (IMF)

Discussant: Fernando Alvarez (University of Chicago)

 

Coffee Break (10:45-11:15)

 

Session 2 (11:15-12:45)─Debt: Micro

Chair: Anoop Singh (IMF)

 

"Maturity Mismatch and Financial Crises: Evidence from Emerging Market Corporations" by Hoyt Bleakley (University of California, San Diego) and Kevin Cowan (Inter-American Development Bank)

Discussant: Peter Garber (Deutsche Bank)

 

"Why Do Emerging Economies Borrow Short Term?" by Fernando Broner (University of Maryland and Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Guido Lorenzoni (Princeton University), and Sergio Schmukler (World Bank)

Discussant: Olivier Jeanne (IMF)

 

Session 3 (2:00-3:30)─Globalization

Chair: Mark Allen (IMF)

 

"Does Financial Globalization Induce Better Macroeconomic Policies?" by Irina Tytell (IMF) and Shang-Jin Wei (IMF)

Discussant: Hélène Rey (Princeton University)

 

"Is Transparency Good for You?" by Rachel Glennerster (IMF and MIT) and Yongseok Shin (University of Wisconsin)

Discussant: Campbell Harvey (Duke University)

 

Coffee Break (3:30-4:00)

 

Session 4 (4:00-5:30)─Banking

Chair: Stefan Ingves (IMF)

 

"The Real Effect of Banking Crises" by Giovanni Dell'Ariccia (IMF), Enrica Detragiache (IMF), and Raghuram Rajan (IMF)

Discussant: Philip Strahan (Boston College)

 

"A Political Agency Theory of Central Bank Independence" by Gauti Eggertsson (IMF) and Eric Le Borgne (IMF)

Discussant: Allan Drazen (University of Maryland and Tel Aviv University)

 
Day 2: Friday, November 5

Session 5 (9:15-10:45)─Growth

Chair: Mohsin Khan (IMF)

 

"From "Hindu Growth" to Productivity Surge: The Mystery of the Indian Growth Transition" by Dani Rodrik (Harvard University) and Arvind Subramanian (IMF)

Discussant: T.N. Srinivasan (Yale University)

 

"IMF Program Design and Growth: Is Optimism Deliberate? Is it Defensible?" by Reza Baqir (IMF), Rodney Ramcharan (IMF), and Ratna Sahay (IMF)

Discussant: Michael A. Clemens (Center for Global Development)

 

Coffee Break (10:45-11:15)

 

Session 6 (11:15-12:45)─Exchange Rates

Chair: Charles Blitzer (IMF)

 

"Pegs, Risk Management, and Financial Crises" by Parag Pathak (Harvard University) and Jean Tirole (University of Toulouse 1)

Discussant: Roberto Chang (Rutgers University)

 

"Exchange Rate Regimes, International Linkages, and the Macroeconomic Performance of the New Member States" by Tamim Bayoumi (IMF), Michael Kumhof (IMF), Douglas Laxton (IMF), and Kanda Naknoi (IMF and Purdue University)

Discussant: Christopher Erceg (Federal Reserve Board of Governors)

 

Economic Forum: Mundell-Fleming Lecture (2:00-3:30) Transcript

Chair: Raghuram Rajan, Economic Counsellor and Director of Research, IMF

 

"Contractionary Currency Crashes in Developing Countries" by Jeffrey Frankel (Harvard University)