Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Public Finance
March 31–April 1, 2000, Prague, Czech Republic

Organizer: The Public Finance Department, University of Economics, under the auspices of Professor Stepanka Novakova, Dean of the Faculty of Finance and Accounting.
Information: Barbora Slintakova, Department of Public Finance, University of Economics, W. Churchill Sq. 4, 13067 Prague 3, the Czech Republic, tel.: 4202-2409-5159, fax 4202-2422-0820, Internet: http://nb.vse.cz/kvf/win/confpf.htm

America-Russian Relations
April 14–16, 2000, Arden House Conference Center, Harriman, New York

Organizers: Davis Center for Russian Studies and W. Averell Harriman Institute.

Topics: what the new Russian President will mean for the United States; what a new administration in Washington will mean for Russia; money-laundering scandals; shareholder rights; NATO expansion; development of Russia’s oil resources.
Information: Marshall I. Goldman, Davis Center for Russian Studies, Harvard University, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, United States, tel.: 617-495-8900 or 617-495-4485, fax.: 617-495-8319, e-mail: dgurvich@fas.harvard.edu.

Twelfth Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) April 18–20, 2000, Washington, DC.

http://www.worldbank.org/research/abcde/

Opening address will be given by James D. Wolfensohn, the president of the World Bank. keynote addresses by Joseph E. Stiglitz, World Bank; Jeffrey Sachs, Harvard University; and Janos Kornai, Harvard University and Collegium Budapest. Session one: New Development Thinking (Paul Collier; Enrique Flores, Ravi Kanbur, Nora Lustig, Jan W. Gunning, Karla Hoff, Francois Bourguignon, Nancy Birdsall, Gustav Ranis, and Charles C. Soludo). Session two: Crises and Recovery (William Easterly, Roumeen Islam, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Ricardo Caballero, Mohamad Hammour, Eisuke Sakakibara, Guillermo Perry; Abhjijit Banerjee, Alejandro Werner, and Steven Radelet). Session three: Corporate Governance and Restructuring—Lessons from Transition and Crises (Alexander Dyck, Gerard Roland, John Earle, and Rafael Laporta). Session four: Social Security, Public and Private Savings (Peter Orszag, Michael Orszag, Orazio Attansio, Miguel Szekely, Robert Holzmann, and Christina Paxson). On each of the first two afternoons there will be four parallel workshop sessions. Participation by non-Bank and non-IMF staff by invitation only. Information: Boris Pleskovic (e-mail: bpleskovic@worldbank.org), Research Advisory Staff, Development Economics Vice Presidency, World Bank, 1818 H Street, N.W., Room MC4-385, Washington DC 20433, tel. 202-473-1062, fax 202-522-0304.

Second Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics in Europe— Development Thinking at the Millennium
June 26–28, 2000

http://www.worldbank.org/research/abcde/

Opening addresses by Lionel Jospin, prime minister of France, and James D. Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank. Welcoming addresses will be given by Christian Sautter,French minister of economy, finance and industry, Pierre-Alain Muet, of the Conseil d’analyse économique in the French finance ministry, and Jean-François Rischard, World Bank. Keynote addresses will be given by Amartya Sen, Nobel Economics Laureate 1998; Robert Mundell, Nobel Economics Laureate 1999, and Christian Sautter. There will be two roundtable discussions: one on "Growth, Poverty Reduction, and Inequality: Lessons Learned" (T.N. Srinivasan, François Bourguignon), and the other on "Openness and Development" (Dani Rodrik and others). Joseph E. Stiglitz, chief economist of the World Bank 1996-2000, will give the luncheon speech: Development Theory at a Crossroads. Eight papers will be presented on four topics. Topic one: 50 Years of Development Economics: What Have We Learned? (Nicholas Stern, Irma Adelman). Topic two: Knowledge, Innovation, and Development (Paul David, Philippe Aghion). Topic three: Social Capital, Governance, and Institutions (Jozef Ritzen, Jean Philippe Platteau). Topic four: Global Governance: In Search of a New Framework (Jean-François Rischard). There will be parallel workshop sessions on the first two days of the conference. The wrap-up and concluding remarks will be given by Jean-François Rischard and Pierre-Alain Muet. Participation is by invitation only. The conference is sponsored by the World Bank and the Conseil d’analyse économique, Ministry of Finance, France.
Information: Jean-Christophe Bas (e-mail: jbas@worldbank.org), External Affairs Counselor, The World Bank, 66 avenue d’Iéna, 75116 Paris, France tel 33-1-40 69 30 35, fax 33-1-47 23 74 36 or Boris Pleskovic (e-mail: bpleskovic @worldbank.org), Research Advisory Staff, World Bank, 1818 H Street, N.W., Room MC4-385, Washington DC 20433, tel 1-202-473-1062, fax 1-202-522-0304.

International Conference on AIDS
July 2000, Durban, South Africa

Organizer: The International AIDS Economic Network (IAEN).

Research welcome on the following topics: the cost-effectiveness of alternative prevention interventions (behavioral and medical), and alternative treatments in the settings of low-income countries; economic analysis that helps governments prioritize their scarce resources for prevention and treatment; the macroeconomic and national welfare impacts of AIDS in developing countries; the economic impact of HIV/AIDS on microeco-nomic actors—households and private firms—and how they cope; the impact of economic crises on the spread of HIV/AIDS and public policy toward AIDS; the economics of AIDS vaccines for developing countries.

Abstracts will be evaluated with respect to theoretical soundness, methodology, analytic rigor, and the significance of the research for public policy. Deadline: June 1, 2000.
Information: http://www.iaen.org/

Participation in the Twenty First Century: New Opportunities, New Perspectives
July 6-8, 2000, Trento, Italy

Organizer: International Association for the Economics of Participation.

Topics: innovative forms of participation; participation in the age of e-commerce; employee participation and the management of change; finance and employee ownership; employee ownership and economic transition; participation and reconstruction in south east Europe; inter-firm cooperation and business alliances; participation, trust, and social inclusion; mutuality, social enterprise, and participation.

Submissions are invited from all relevant fields of study including: industrial economics; comparative economic systems; organizational studies; management studies; economic sociology; institutional economics; evolutionary economics; development economics; studies of economies in transition.