Institute for International Economic and Political Studies

A common view states that central bank releases decrease central banks' own information about the economy and are harmful if about inefficient disturbances, such as cost-push shocks. This paper shows how neither is true in a microfounded macroeconomic model in which households and firms learn from central bank releases and the central bank learns from the observation of firm prices. Central bank releases make private sector and central bank expectations closer to common knowledge. This helps transmit dispersed information between the private sector and the central bank. As a result, the release of additional central bank information decreases the central bank's own uncertainty and can be beneficial, irrespective of the efficacy of macroeconomic fluctuations. A calibrated example suggests that the benefits of disclosure are substantial. (JEL D82, D83, D84, E12, E52, E58)

From the point of view of the EU enlargement in 2004 the article considers selected aspects of Germany participation in international competition of economic environment. It summarizes the results of transformation of Eastern Germany economy and estimates the potential of this region in competition with the new EU members - CEE countries. The article concludes by making some corrections of existing assessments of market transformation in post-Soviet countries, including Russia.

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Under the conditions of the rising globalization of the life of society, international migration is playing an increasingly significant role. One natural consequence of this is the increased pace of the migration of scientific cadres between countries, the emergence of a specific phenomenon that is known as the "brain drain."

If we leave aside empty discussions about ‘everyone being tired of programs and the time having come to finally get down to everyday work without external effects,’ the question formulated in the title must depend on our assessment of the present state of affairs in the Russian economy and, accordingly, the quality of current economic policy. If the situation is critical and the current policy does not promise to improve it, the search for fundamentally new solutions is absolutely necessary. But if everything is not so bad and if ‘there is light at the end of the tunnel,’ then, naturally, no new programs whatsoever are needed.