Introduction

The Economics Department and the Bernard Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at New School University have hosted a conference on “Monetary Policy and Unemployment in the US, Euro-area and Japan.” The conference, in honor of James Tobin, Nobel Laureate in Economics, has discussed what potential role monetary policy has on economic activity and unemployment reduction in the three currency zones. This event took place on November 22–23, 2002, and was made possible with financial support of the Bernard Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. The subsequent papers have been presented at the conference. The conference has brought together distinguished macroeconomists from the United States, the Euro-area, and Japan. It has also included practitioners from the Federal Reserve System of the United States, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the European Commission. Some of the macroeconomists included in this volume have made path-breaking contributions to the analysis of the role of monetary policy and unemployment, and the practitioners of monetary policy have brought in their extensive practical experience in effectively implementing the monetary policy The conference, organized in honor of the late James Tobin, follows up some major themes in his latest work. Encouraged by the work of James Tobin, it is part of an ongoing effort of the Economics Department and the Bernard Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at New School University to improve our understanding of growth and unemployment in the contemporary world economy At the conference, there were discussants for each paper, whose work however could not be included in this book because of space limitation. The papers were rewritten after the conference, taking into account the conference discussions and the discussants’ comments.