Texas Monetary Conference

March 28-29, 2003

All sessions, the reception, and the conference dinner will be held at the Houston Branch of the Dallas Fed

Friday, March 28

8:00 – 9:00 Continental Breakfast

9:00 – 10:15 Martin Eichenbaum (Northwestern) “Government Finance in the Wake of Currency Crises” (with Craig Burnside and Sergio Rebelo)

Discussant: Ken Beauchemin (SUNY Albany, visiting UT)

10:15 – 10:45 Break

10:45 – 12:00 Carlos Vegh (UCLA) “When is it Optimal to Abandon a Fixed Exchange Rate?” (with Sergio Rebelo)

Discussant: Paula Hernandez-Verme (Texas A&M)

12:00 – 1:15 Lunch

1:15 – 2:30 Robert Cumby (Georgetown) “Euler Equations and Money Market Interest Rates: A Challenge for Monetary Policy Models” (with Matthew Canzoneri and Behzad Diba)

Discussant: Juan Cordoba (Rice)

2:30 – 2:45 Break

2:45 – 4:00 Ricardo Reis (Harvard) “Monetary Policy for Inattentive Economies” (with Greg Mankiw and Laurence Ball)

Discussant: Evan Koenig (Dallas Fed)

4:00 – 4:15 Break

4:15 – 5:30 Daron Acemoglu (MIT) “Distance to Frontier, Selection, and Economic Growth” (with Philippe Aghion and Fabrizio Zilibotti)

Discussant: Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan (UH)

5:30 – 7:00 Reception

7:00 Dinner

Saturday, March 29

8:00 - 9:00 Continental Breakfast

9:00 – 10:15 Charles Engel (Wisconsin) “Exchange Rates and Fundamentals” (with Ken West)

Discussant: Dennis Jansen (Texas A&M)

10:15 – 10:45 Break

10:45 – 12:00 Joshua Aizenman (UCSC) “International Reserve Holdings with Sovereign Risk and Costly Tax Collection” (with Nancy Marion)

Discussant: Bent Sorensen (UH)

12:00 Lunch