10th Annual Macroeconomic Research Workshop at MNB: Fiscal Rebalancing, Public Debt, and its National and Global implications

On September 15-16, 2011 the annual Macroeconomics Research Workshop took place at Magyar Nemzeti Bank, Budapest, celebrating its 10th year of existence, out of which it was organized jointly with the CEPR for the 4th time. The workshop's title and main theme was ‘Fiscal Rebalancing, Public Debt, and its National and Global Implications’, the topicality of which could hardly be higher at times at which countries' excessive levels of public debt, and the deepening of a European debt crisis, make the headlines in newspapers around the world almost on a daily level. The keynote speakers of the event were professors Eric M. Leeper (Indiana University) and Carlos A. Végh (University of Maryland), two renowned academics and leading experts in the field. In addition a great selection of presenters and discussants contributed to a wide array of topics, such as the macroeconomic effects of fiscal shocks, the size of fiscal multipliers, linkages between fiscal policy variables and the financial cycle, sovereign default and default risk premia on public debt, or the role of fiscal uncertainty on economic activity. The workshop brought together macroeconomists from a wide background, academics and researchers from policy institutions alike. This meant that not only the audience benefited from a wide angle of perspectives, but also that the workshop was stage of quite a few of disclaimers of presenters that they are not representing their institutions. Finally, this year's workshop also featured a panel discussion that invited for a more policyoriented exchange of thoughts, on ‘Debt Problems in Europe’. In the following, this article aims to provide a summary of some of the lessons from the workshop, focusing in particular on reviewing the contributions by the keynote speakers and the panel discussion on debt problems in Europe.