This grant provides support to continue a series of annual conferences on macroeconomics. These conferences, which started in 1986, have made a significant contribution to the testing of empirical implications of new theories as well as the use of relevant theory to analyze policy issues of current interest. The conference series will continue to encourage the writing of empirically oriented papers by both established and promising young economists. In addition, the series will continue to serve as a forum for communication among economists from the different schools of macroeconomics. The annual conference volume has become a widely cited and influential research reference. This conference was created in 1986 to fill what was then perceived to be a major problem in macroeconomic research, namely a widening gap between the research frontiers and policy issues. It seemed at the time that young researchers in economics were doing little empirical research and very rarely examining in any depth the empirical implications of their theories. The conference also addresses another major problem in macroeconomics. The field of macroeconomics appears increasingly to be splitting into different schools, which are not seriously communicating with each other. Support is needed so that this successful conference series can continue to address these problems in macroeconomics.
