Economist Interviews from St. Louis Fed's 2013 Fall Conference Now Available

ST. LOUIS—Each year, the Research division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis sponsors a fall conference.  As part of its research mission, the conference seeks to provide perspectives on whether the policies adopted in the past still serve us well today and whether development at the frontier of research can be applied to improve policy. 

“In polite economist society, there has long been a distinction between what is known as ‘frontier’ research and what is sometimes called ‘policy’ research.  In my view, this has been and continues to be a false dichotomy,” said St. Louis Fed President James Bullard.

“There is no such distinction: ‘Policy’ and ‘frontier’ research are two sides of the same coin.  We need to understand both how fundamental mechanisms in the economy operate as well as how current data can be interpreted in terms of fundamental theory,” said Bullard.

“At the St. Louis Fed, we continually look for ways to connect frontier research with policy. Our annual fall conference, which brings together leading academics and economists, does just that,” said Research Director Chris Waller.

In addition to the conference, David Andolfatto, a vice president and economist in the St. Louis Fed’s Research division, interviewed each of the conference presenters to discuss their work. The St. Louis Fed’s goal in producing these interviews is to explain, in plain English, why the research is important, what implications it has for policy and what it means for people and the economy overall.

The list of economist interviews, as well as their topics, includes:

• Ricardo Lagos, New York University — “Trade Dynamics in the Market for Federal Funds”
• Martin S. Eichenbaum, Northwestern University — “Unemployment and Business Cycles”
• Martin Schneider, Stanford University — “Banks’ Risk Exposures”
• Michael Woodford, Columbia University — "Conventional and Unconventional Monetary Policy in a Model with Endogenous Collateral Constraints"
• Lawrence J. Christiano, Northwestern University — "Leverage Restrictions in a Business Cycle Model"
• Andrew G. Atkeson, UCLA — "Measuring the Financial Soundness of U.S. Firms, 1926—2012"
• Markus K. Brunnermeier, Princeton University — "The I Theory of Money"
• Larry E. Jones, University of Minnesota — "Is There 'Too Much' Inequality in Health Spending Across Income Groups?"
• Richard Rogerson, Princeton University — “Retirement, Home Production and Labor Supply Elasticities”

For the conference volume and the full conference agenda, please see the 38th Annual Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Fall Conference.