Workshop on Macroeconomic Policies

IMF Seminars, Conferences, and Workshops



Panel on Macroeconomic Policies and Poverty Reduction
Sponsored by the Research Department1

Transcript

Friday, April 13, 2001, 3:30 p.m.–5:00 p.m.
Open to Fund, Bank staff, and the Public—no registration needed.2

IMF Center Auditorium, Room R-710
International Monetary Fund
720 19th Street N.W., Washington D.C.

While there is a great deal of literature and experience on poverty and poverty eradication, many of the links between macroeconomic policies and poverty are not well understood. As part of an effort to identify and analyze such links, and to help define the most effective role for international financial institutions in the process, the IMF has organized a workshop on macroeconomic policies and poverty reduction. The workshop is intended to serve as a forum for Fund economists to present the results of their work and to benefit from constructive suggestions from experts in academic and international financial institutions.

The concluding event of the two-day workshop is a forum that is open to the public. A high-level panel of experts will give their views on issues in research and policy work on macroeconomics and poverty. Among the questions to be considered by the panelists are: How can the IMF contribute to understanding the effect of macroeconomic policies on poverty? What new lessons can international financial institutions learn about the effects of their macroeconomic policy recommendations on the living standards of the poor? How can Fund research improve the effectiveness of the IMF's Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility?

These and other questions will be addressed by four panelists at this forum:

Angus S. Deaton, Professor of Economics and International Affairs, and Director, Research Program in Development Studies, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, at Princeton University.

T.N. Srinivasan, Chairman, Department of Economics, and Samuel C. Park, Jr. Professor of Economics, at Yale University.

Nicholas H. Stern, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, World Bank.

Robert Townsend, Charles E. Merriam Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and of Social Sciences, and Director of Graduate Admissions in Economics, at the University of Chicago; Research Associate, National Opinion Research Center.

The Chairman of the panel will be Stanley Fischer, First Deputy Managing Director, IMF, and chairman of the IMF's Committee on Research Priorities that last year identified work on poverty reduction, IMF-supported programs, and macroeconomic policies as a priority area for research.
1Organizing Committee; Paul Masson (Research Department), Ratna Sahay (Office of the Managing Director), Paul Cashin, Paolo Mauro, Catherine Pattillo, Sylvia Brescia, Rosalind Oliver (all Research Department). For more information, please email: povertyworkshop.@imf.org
2Please present a picture identification at the Lobby.