International seminar on macroeconomics.

• Position: Conferences

The NBER's 27th Annual International Seminar on Macroeconomics (ISOM), organized by Richard H. Clarida, NBER and Columbia University, and Francesco Giavazzi, NBER and Bocconi University, was held on June 18-19 at the University of Iceland. Jeffrey A. Frankel, NBER and Harvard University, serves as chair of ISOM. The following papers were discussed at the conference:

Gauti Eggertsson, IMF, and Michael Woodford, NBER and Princeton University, "Optimal Monetary and Fiscal Policy in a Liquidity Trap"

Discussants: Tor Einarsson, University of Iceland, and Eric Leeper, NBER and Indiana University

Fabio Canova, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and Evi Pappa, London School of Engineering, "Does it Cost to be Virtuous? The Macroeconomic Effects of Fiscal Constraints"

Discussants: Kenneth West, NBER and University of Wisconsin, and Gylfi Zoega, University of London

Matthew Canzoneri and Behzad Diba, Georgetown University, and Robert Cumby, NBER and Georgetown University, "How Do Monetary and Fiscal Policy Interact in the European Monetary Union?"

Discussants: Gauti Eggertsson, and Carlo Favero, Universita Bocconi

Ozge Senay, Middle East Technical University, and Alan Sutherland, University of St. Andrews, "Endogeneous Price Flexibility, the Expenditure Switching Effect, and Exchange Rate Regime Choice"

Discussants: Gianluca Benigno, London School of Economics, and Matthew Canzoneri

Mihir A. Desai, NBER and Harvard University, and C. Fritz Foley, University of Michigan, "The Co-Movement of Returns and Investment Within the Multinational Firm"

Discussants: Jose Campa, IESE Business School, and Evi Pappa

Francesco Caselli, NBER and Harvard University, and Silvana Tenreyro, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, "Is Poland the Next Spain?"

Discussants: Richard H. Clarida and Juan Dolado, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

Andrew Clark, CNRS, and Fabien Postel-Vinay, CREST-INSEE, "Job Security and Job Protection"

Discussants: Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, NBER and University of California, Berkeley, and Alan Sutherland

Rob Alessie, Utrecht University; Agar Brugiavini, University of Venice; and Guglielmo Weber, University of Padova, "Household Saving and Cohabitation"

Discussants: Mihir A. Desai, and Michael McMahon, Bank of England

In previous work, Eggertsson and Woodford characterized the optimal conduct of monetary policy when a real disturbance caused the natural rate of interest to be temporarily negative, so that the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates was...