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NBER: ISoM in Slovenia, June 20-21
ISoM in Slovenia, June 20-21
Dear IFM member,
I am writing to inquire whether you might be interested in writing a paper
for the International Seminar on Macroeconomics (ISOM), to be held June
20-21. We have one author slot open. (If I have already discussed this
with you, I apologize for the repetition.) Also let me know if you
might be interested in coming as a discussant of another paper, assuming
there is an appropriate match.
ISOM, as most of you know well, is a conference held in June, in a
different European city each year, for the last 30 years. It is
sponsored by the National Bureau of Economic Research. I am the American
co-organizer, on behalf of the NBER. In 2008, Chris Pissarides is the
European co-organizer of the program along with me. The 2008 meeting will
be held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, June 20-21, where our local host will be
the Central Bank of Slovenia. It is an interesting country -- whether
from the standpoint of an economist or a tourist -- and worth spending a
few extra days in, if you have time (
http://www.slovenia.info/en/Photo-Album.htm?photoalbum=0&lng=2). The NBER
pays the transportation expenses of the US participants. For more on
recent history, click on
http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~jfrankel/Recent_ConfBksNBER.htm and go to ISoM.
The papers used to be published in the European Economic Review. But a few
years ago we switched to a new system in which they are published in the
NBER International Seminar on Macroeconomics. This is a new companion
volume to the highly successful NBER Macro Annual, both of them now
published through the University of Chicago press. As with the Macro
Annual, I believe that our volume is technically classed as a journal, so
you can count this as a journal publication (on your CV or in journal
citation counts). As with the Macro Annual, the papers undergo a review
process with no definite commitment to publish all of them. The decision
is made by the board of six IsoM organizers, with some input -- not
necessarily formal referee reports -- from referees, who will normally
include at least one of the discussants from the conference itself. But
the heavy majority of papers are accepted and published, typically 7 out of
8. The idea is to ensure up front that we are getting good papers by good
authors.
We define “macroeconomics” very broadly. There is a strong preference for
empirical work. This need not always mean econometrics. But the research
should be strongly motivated by real world questions and closely tied to
real world facts and data. Many of the best papers use a comparative
analysis, for example using data from European countries for a test that
has originally arisen in the context of the US economy. As we have moved
closer to the format of the Macro Annual, we will be particularly partial
to papers where it is possible to convey the subject matter in two or three
words. To illustrate, some of the topics addressed by papers presented
at recent IsoM meetings include: “liquidity traps,” “balanced budget
rules,” “employment protection legislation,” “saving and cohabitation,”
“international transmission,” “pension systems,” “wage cyclicality,”
“fiscal policy under EMU,” “financial globalization,” “contagion,”
“convergence in the accession countries,” and “public investment.”
Papers we are not especially interested in are those best described only as
“another macro model.”
Also, in years such as this, when we are meeting in a Central European
country, we are slightly partial to papers that bear some relevance to the
region, addressing topics such as accession to EMU, or completing the
transition to a capitalist economy. Slovenia is noteworthy in being the
first of the transition economies to make it into the euro (and so far the
only one). Thus we encourage such proposals. But by no means do the
majority of papers have to relate to the host region in this way.
If you might be interested in participating this year, please try to let me
know by January 31. I would then ask for a very short proposal by February
10, describing what you would write on (one paragraph is long enough). I
expect to make my decision very soon after that. Deadline for complete
conference drafts is May 25. I would be happy to answer any questions.
Jeff Frankel
Received on Sun Jan 20 2008 - 11:24:10 EST
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