Twenty-First Annual International Seminar on Macroeconomics.

• Position: Seminar of the National Bureau of Economic Research

The NBER held the 21st Annual International Seminar on Macroeconomics (ISOM) in Lisbon on June 14 and 15, with joint sponsorship of the Bank of Portugal. Kenneth S. Rogoff of the NBER and Princeton University and Charles Wyplosz of Geneva's Graduate Institute of International Studies were the conference organizers, Andrew K. Rose of NBER and the University of California, Berkeley, and Charles Wyplosz serve as ISOM co-chairs. This meeting included the following presentations:

Stefan Gerlach, Bank for International Settlements, Basle, "Who Targets Inflation?"

Discussants: Vitor Gaspar, Bank of Portugal, and Nouriel Roubini, NBER and New York University

Andres Velasco, NBER and New York University, and Vicenzo Guzzo, New York University, "The Case for a Populist Central Banker"

Discussants: Hans-Peter Gruner, University of Bonn, and Carl Walsh, University of California, Santa Cruz

Lucrezia Reichlin, ECARE, Brussels, and Marco Forni, Dipartimento di Economia Politica, Modena, "How Risk Averse Are Policymakers in Europe?"

Discussants: Franck Portier, CEPREMAP, Paris, and Mark W. Watson, NBER and Princeton University

Nouriel Roubini; Giancarlo Corsetti, Universita di Roma; and Paolo A. Pesenti, NBER and Princeton University, "Currency Crisis and Contagion in Asia"

Discussants: Andrew Scott, London School of Business, and Jaume Ventura, MIT

Andrew Scott; and Harald Uhlig, Tilburg University, "Fickle International Investors: An Impediment to Growth?"

Discussants: Michele Boldrin, Universidad Carlos III, Madrid, and Andrew K. Rose

Philip R. Lane, Trinity College, Dublin, "International Investment Positions: An Empirical Investigation"

Discussants: Paolo A. Pesenti; and Phillippe Bacchetta, Studienzentrum Gerzensee

Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Stanford University, "The Reallocation Effect of Exchange Rate Turbulence: Evidence from the United States, France, and the OECD"

Discussants: Robert J. Gordon, NBER and Northwestern University, and Ilian Mihov, INSEAD

Shang-Jin Wei, NBER and Harvard University, "Currency Hedging and Goods Trade"

Discussants: Giancarlo Corsetti and Lucrezia Reichlin

A number of countries recently have adopted inflation targeting (IT) as a monetary policy framework. Gerlach asks what factors may have led them to do so. He demonstrates that the commodity concentration and the composition of exports (which are correlated with measures of the importance of supply and external shocks) and the degree of central bank independence...