International Monetary Fund

Washington, DC, April 16–17, 2013

Rethinking Macro Policy II: First Steps and Early Lessons



The IMF hosted a Conference on "Rethinking Macro Policy II: First Steps and Early Lessons"

It has now been five years since the outbreak of the global financial crisis. A central question is how the crisis has changed the way we think about macroeconomic policy. The IMF originally tackled this issue at a 2011 conference, which then spawned a book that was published by the MIT Press. Two years later, the time seems right for another assessment. Research has gone on, policies have been tried, debates have been intense. So, the IMF has decided to come back to the same theme. To do this, it has organized a conference on "Rethinking Macro Policy II: First Steps and Early Lessons", which took place at the IMF’s Headquarters in Washington, DC on April 16–17, 2013

The conference brought together leading academics and policymakers from around the globe, as well as representatives from civil society, the private sector, and the media. It was hosted by:

Attendance was by invitation only, but the proceedings were webcasted live and available below.

Five years into the crisis, the contours of the macroeconomic policy of the future are only slowly coming into focus. From macroeconomic to financial stability, policy makers have realized that they have to watch many targets. They have also realized that they have potentially many more instruments at their disposal, from macro prudential tools to unconventional monetary policy. But how to map instruments to targets remains very much a work in progress.

--Olivier Blanchard

Introductory video by Olivier Blanchard

Background Paper
Rethinking Macro Policy II: Getting Granular  

Program

IMF Headquarters 2
Conference Hall 1
Tuesday, April 16, 2013

2:45–3:00pm Opening remarks: Christine Lagarde

PresentationWelcoming Remarks by the Managing Director

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3:00–4:30pm SESSION I: Monetary Policy

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Chair
Janet Yellen

PresentationPanel Discussion on "Monetary Policy: Many Targets, Many Instruments. Where Do We Stand?"


Discussants

Lorenzo Bini-Smaghi
PresentationMonetary policy: Many targets, Many instruments, Where do we stand?

Mervyn King
PresentationMonetary policy: many targets, many instruments. Where do we stand?

Mike Woodford
PresentationMonetary Policy Targets After the Crisis

5:00–6:30pm SESSION II: Macroprudential Policies

Watch the video Part 1

Watch the video Part 2

Chair
Andy Haldane
PresentationMacroprudential Policies – When and how to use them

Discussants

Claudio Borio
PresentationMacro-prudential policy and the financial cycle: Some stylized facts and policy suggestions

Stanley Fischer
PresentationMacro-prudential Policy: Israel

Choongsoo Kim
PresentationMacroprudential Policies: Korea’s Experiences
PaperRead the Paper

IMF Headquarters 2
Conference Hall 1
Wednesday, April 17, 2013

9:00–10:30am SESSION III: Financial Regulation

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Chair
Sheila Bair
PresentationEverything the IMF Wanted to Know About Financial Regulation and Wasn’t Afraid to Ask

Discussants

Jeremy Stein

PresentationRegulating Large Financial Institutions

Jean Tirole
PresentationRethinking Macro Policy II: First Steps and Early Lessons

John Vickers
PresentationBanking reform in Britain and Europe
PaperRead the Paper

11:00–12:30pm SESSION IV: Fiscal Policy


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Chair
Janice Eberly
PresentationFiscal Policy

Discussants

Anders Borg


PresentationRe-thinking fiscal policy: Constrained activism

Roberto Perotti
Presentation Rethinking Macro Policy II

Nouriel Roubini
PresentationFiscal Policy

12:30–1:45pm ***Lunch***
(HQ1 Events Hall)

Luncheon speech by Sir Adair Turner
PaperRead the Paper

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2:00–3:30pm SESSION V: Exchange Rate Arrangements

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Chair
Agustín Carstens


Discussants

Jay Shambaugh
Presentationtitle
PaperRead the Paper

Martin Wolf
PresentationExchange rate arrangements: The strange case of Spain and the UK

Gang Yi
PresentationExchange Rate Arrangement: Flexible and Fixed Exchange Rate Debate Revisited

4:00–5:30pm SESSION VI: Capital Account Management

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Chair
Duvvuri Subbarao

PresentationOpening Remarks
Presentation Capital Account Management


Discussants

Jose De Gregorio
PresentationCapital Flows and Capital Account Management
Presentation Rethinking Macro Policy II: Capital Account Management

Márcio Holland de Brito
Presentationtitle
PaperRead the Paper

Hélène Rey

5:30–6:30pm PANEL DISCUSSION

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George Akerlof
Olivier Blanchard
David Romer
Joseph Stiglitz

Conference Coordinators: Tracey Lookadoo, Lucia Buono, Hites Ahir and Shanti Karunaratne