Call for Papers

The International Monetary Fund will hold the 22nd Jacques Polak Annual Research Conference on November 4-5, 2021. 

 

It is over a year since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and there remains tremendous uncertainty around the evolution of the pandemic. Much depends on the outcome of the ongoing race between a mutating virus and multiple vaccines, and on the ability of policies to provide effective support until we are past this health crisis. After a historic collapse in the first half of 2020, the global economy has partially recovered but prospects diverge dramatically across and within countries. The inequity in access to vaccines, the wide disparities in fiscal space across countries, and structural differences can exacerbate these divergences.

In this context, the 2021 IMF Annual Research Conference will focus on strategies to bring about a resilient recovery by boosting growth and reducing inequality across and within countries. Resilience will require policies to support growth and restore confidence, including the appropriate fiscal-monetary policy mix, addressing the debt overhang, and mitigating the negative impact on employment and income distribution. The conference will bring together academics and policy makers, foster innovative research, and provide a platform for a fruitful exchange of views. 

 

The Program Committee welcomes empirical and theoretical work on topics including, but not limited to:

• Monetary and financial policy to respond to the COVID-19 crisis and support the recovery;
• Fiscal policies to support growth, reduce inequality, and address the public debt overhang;
• Structural policies to restore confidence and mitigate the negative impact on employment and income distribution;
• Implications for capital flows and policies to address capital flow volatility;
• Implications for trade and trade policy, including disruptions to global value chains; 
• Cross-border effects of policies; multilateral considerations; potential for global and regional coordination

 

Interested contributors should submit a draft paper or a detailed proposal by July 1, 2021 (e-mail to ARC@imf.org). Please use the contact author’s name as the name of the file. The Program Committee will evaluate all proposals in terms of originality, analytical rigor, and policy relevance and will contact the authors whose papers have been selected by mid-August, 2021.¹ Further information on the conference program will be posted on the IMF website (www.imf.org).

 

Conference Program Committee: Emine Boz (IMF, Co-Editor of the IMF Economic Review), Linda Tesar (Editor-in-Chief of the IMF Economic Review and the University of Michigan), and Joannes Mongardini (IMF, Deputy Division Chief, Research Department). 

 

Senior Conference Coordinator: Tracey Lookadoo

 

¹Submissions co-authored with IMF staff members will be evaluated by the IMF Economic Review editor-in-chief.