On 30 March, ADEMU will stage a conference and lecture examining fiscal policy in times of crisis, hosted by the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics. To arrange press passes or request interviews with any of the speakers, please contact ADEMU communications coordinator Juliet Shaw at juliet.shaw@barcelonagse.eu. We will attempt to accommodate all requests but they cannot be guaranteed. 

 Jointly organized by Luca Fornaro (CREi, UPF and Barcelona GSE), Timothy Kehoe (University of Minnesota and Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis) and Ramon Marimon (European University Institute and UPF-Barcelona GSE), the conference will examine current research into how fiscal policy should be conducted in recessions and its interactions with financial markets and monetary policy. Nobel laureate Edward C Prescott (Arizona State University) will close the event with his lecture Fiat Value and the Theory of Value.

Conference sessions include:

• Optimal Austerity, presented by Timothy Kehoe and discussed with Albert Marcet (IAE-CSIC, MOVE, ICREA, and Barcelona GSE)
• The Heterogeneous Effects of Government Spending: It’s All About Taxes, presented by Axelle Ferriere (EUI) and discussed with Nezih Guner (CEMFI, UAB, MOVE, and Barcelona GSE)
• On the risk of leaving the Euro, presented by Juan Pablo Nicolini (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and Universidad Torcuato Di Tella) and discussed with Jaume Ventura (CREi, UPF, and Barcelona GSE)
• Time Consistent Fiscal Policy in a Debt Crisis, presented by Neele Balke (UCL) and discussed with Davide Debortoli (UPF, CREi and Barcelona GSE)

The conference is being hosted by Barcelona GSE during the weekend of the school’s tenth anniversary celebrations. On Friday 31 March, the school will host a round-table panel discussion with members of the Barcelona GSE Scientific Council, and a conversation with two of the council’s Nobel Laureates, Oliver Hart (Harvard University) and Bengt Holmström (MIT).

Barcelona GSE is one of eight leading European economics research institutions which form ADEMU. The three-year Horizon 2020 research project was set up to reassess the overall fiscal and monetary framework of the EU and examine the long-term sustainability of the European Monetary Union (EMU). It aims to provide concrete and implementable policy proposals for the reform of the EMU through the application of the methods of modern macroeconomics and on the basis of empirical facts.

Led by scientific co-ordinator Ramon Marimon, the project benefits from the expertise of 54 academics and over 30 PhD and post-doc researchers in the field of macroeconomics and fiscal policy. Participants come from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, the Catholic University of Portugal, the Charles University in Prague, the European University Institute in Florence, the Toulouse School of Economics, University College London, the University of Bonn and the University of Cambridge.

You can see a full list of current working papers from the project at www.ademu-project.eu/publications/working-papers/

For upcoming events, go to www.ademu-project.eu/upcoming-activities/

For further information about ADEMU research, contact the project manager, Margherita Fabbri (margherita.fabbri@eui)

For press enquiries, including requests for photographs and interviews, contact Juliet Shaw at Juliet.shaw@barcelonagse.eu