This paper is the text of the key-note speech on macroeconomics given by Christopher Allsopp at the 75th Anniversary Symposium of the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) in Vienna on January 23rd 2002. It discusses the role of the European Central Bank, coordination issues between...

This paper discusses the two-way interaction between policy and academic enquiry regarding rules for monetary policy. The emerging consensus on monetary policy is described; in that context, some of the features of the current UK system are outlined which seem particularly important. From a...

In EMU, a country may have difficulty ensuring stability in the face of asymmetric shocks; the response may be unstable, or, even if not, the real exchange rate might overshoot. Fiscal policy may help to stabilise inflation and also to target the real exchange rate. The paper argues that an...

The assessment attempts to provide a broad explanation of the post-war pattern of real interest rates, drawing on the theoretical and empirical papers in this issue of the Oxford Review. It is argued that the concept of the "neutral" rate of interest, at which the economy grows at its productive...