What challenges does globalization present for industrialized economies, such as the United States and the European Union? How will fluctuations in dollar and euro exchange rates affect economic growth, inflation and interest rates? Will globalization influence the role of the dollar and the euro in international financial systems?
These are a few of the questions to be explored May 25 as high-ranking international finance policymakers from the European Union and the United States join scholars for a conference on “The Euro and the Dollar in a Globalized Economy” at Washington University in St. Louis.
Free and open to the public, the conference runs from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Charles F. Knight Executive Education Center Danforth Campus, Washington University in St. Louis. For registration or more information, contact Melinda Warren at 935-5652; warren@wustl.edu; or visit the Weidenbaum Center Web site: http://wc.wustl.edu.
Organized by Steven Fazzari, Ph.D., professor of economics in Arts & Sciences and Laurence H. Meyer, former Federal Reserve board member and economic forecaster, the conference features presentations by leading policymakers, including John Taylor, a prominent Republican presidential policy advisor and Lucas Papademos, current vice president of the European Central Bank.
Sponsored by the European Union Delegation of the European Commission to the USA, the conference is co-hosted by the Department of Economics in Arts & Sciences, the Murray Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Conference Overview
The Euro and the Dollar in a Globalized Economy
May 25, 2006 at Washington University in St. Louis
Welcoming remarks: Hervé Carré, Delegation of the European Commission and Mark Wrighton, Chancellor, Washington University in St. Louis
I. Challenges of Globalization: This session explores the challenges of globalization for industrial economies, such as the United States and the European Union, and how the emergence of China and India as global players has affected these challenges. We also plan to consider how policies in the advanced economies have been successful in the past and may help in the future to mitigate the inevitable stresses and adjustment problems associated with globalization.
- Paper: Nigel Pain, Senior Economist and Head of Globalization Team, OECD
- Discussant: Martin Baily, Senior Fellow, Institute for International Economics
- Discussant: John Fernald, Vice President, Macroeconomic Research, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
- Discussant: Jacques Mistral, Minister Financial Counselor, Embassy of France in the United States
II. Global Imbalances: Discussion in this session will consider global imbalances in international financial flows. In particular, we will look into the role of changes in the dollar and the euro exchange rates as part of a market-induced correction in global imbalances, and, more broadly, the effect of the adjustment process on growth, inflation and interest rates in the United States and Europe.
- Paper: Philip Lane, Trinity College-Dublin
- Discussant: Steven Kamin, Deputy Associate Director, Division of International Finance, Federal Reserve Board
- Discussant: Hervé Carré, Delegation of the European Commission
III. Luncheon Speaker: John Taylor, Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of Economics, Stanford University
IV. The International Role of the Dollar and the Euro: This session focuses on the roles of the dollar and euro in the international financial system, how official foreign exchange holdings are likely to become more diversified, how the changing roles of the dollar and euro in the international financial system might affect the U.S. and the euro area economies, and, more generally, how the international financial system is likely to evolve.
- Paper: Gabriele Galati, Bank for International Settlements
- Discussant: Philipp Hartman, European Central Bank
- Discussant: Charles Engel, Professor of Economics, University of Wisconsin
V. Summary Panel: Remarks from senior economists and policy makers on the presentations given at the conference, what we have learned, and what outstanding issues remain. Ample time will be allowed for questions and comments from other presenters and participants.
- Pervenche Berès, Chair, Economic and Monetary Committee, European Parliament
- Willem Buiter, Professor of European Political Economy, London School of Economics and Political Science
- Edwin Truman, Senior Fellow, Institute for International Economics
- Lucas Papademos, Vice President, European Central Bank