SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

• Mr. Pero Jurković, Chairman, National Bank of Croatia
• Mr. Robert A. Mundell, Columbia University
• Mr. Mario I. Blejer, International Monetary Fund
• Mr. Marko Škreb, National Bank of Croatia

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

• Mr. Marko Škreb, Chairman, Governor, National Bank of Croatia
• Mr. Zdravko Rogić, Deputy Governor, National Bank of Croatia
• Mr. Relja Martić, Vicegovernor, National Bank of Croatia
• Mr. Velimir Šonje, Executive Director, National Bank of Croatia
• Ms. Lidija Pleadin, Assistant to the Chief of Staff, National Bank of Croatia
• Ms. Ružica Vuger, Press Officer, National Bank of Croatia

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
(participation by invitation only)

"FINANCIAL SECTOR TRANSFORMATION: LESSONS FROM THE ECONOMIES IN TRANSITION"

About the book

While policy makers need to be focused on achieving and sustaining basic macroeconomic stability in the transition of economies from a socialist to a market orientation, financial institutions and reforms play a particularly crucial role in this transformation. The essays in this collection offer overviews of issues in banking sector reform and capital markets as well as specific perspectives on the financial sectors in changing economies of Central and Eastern Europe, China, and Israel. The editors and contributors explore the questions of how much focus needs to be given to macroeconomic stabilization vis-a-vis the dynamics of the financial sector, what may be appropriate time frames for dealing with immediate and longer-term financial problems, and how trends toward economic globalization interact with financial development in transition countries.

Original versions of these essays were presented at the Second Dubrovnik Conference on Transition Economies organized by the Croatian National Bank, June 1996.

"MACROECONOMIC STABILIZATION IN TRANZITION ECONOMIES"
by Mario I. Blejer and Marko Škreb
Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1999

Contributors

• Mario I. Blejer, International Monetary Fund
• Marko Škreb, National Bank of Croatia
• Martha de Melo, The World Bank
• John P. Bonin, Wesleyan University
• Cevdet Denizer, The World Bank
• Paul Wachtel, Stern School of Business, New York University
• Arye L. Hillman, Bar Illan University
• Henrich W. Ursprung, University of Konstanz
• Willem H. Buiter, University of Cambridge and Bank of England
• Ricardo Lago, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
• Hélene Rey, Centre for Economic Preformance, London School of Economics and CREST
• Ardo H. Hansson, Stockholm School of Economics
• Triinu Tombak, Estonian Investment Bank
• Velimir Šonje, National Bank of Croatia
• Evan Kraft, National Bank of Croatia
• Thomas Dorsey, International Monetary Fund
• Robert A. Mundell, Columbia University
• Velimir Bole, University of Ljubljana
• Franjo Stiblar, University of Ljubljana
• Jacob A. Frenkel, Bank of Israel

The book reviews

This book has been written by leading intellectuals who have witnessed the financial transformation in Central and Eastern Europe and elsewhere from the front lines of policymaking and advice-giving institutions. Its coverage of the macroeconomic context and of the institutional crisis and evolution in the banking sector is excellent in breadth and detail. After ten years, since the transition began, this work offers perspective and insight into whole process. − Enrico Perotti, University of Amsterdam

Banking and financial markets posed the most formidable challenges for post-communist economies: hardening and stabilizing the currency; cleaning up the balance sheets of enterprises and banks, before their re-capitalization and privatization; and above all developing entirely new institutions - from new banks to bank supervision, to the emergence and growth of financial intermediaries and markets, formerly missing completely. It was a question not so much of transformation but of creation. Unexpected problems have arisen, from apparent de-monetisation to banking crises, from external fragility to bursting bubbles. The Dubrovnik papers edited by Mario Blejer and Marko Skreb break new ground and make original, important contributions to our understanding of these neglected and fundamental aspects of the transition, in general and in more interesting countries. The book is essential reading for both scholars and practitioners, but will also be enjoyed by the general reader. − Mario Nuti Ph. D., University of Rome and London Business School

At last a book which uses a fully up-to-date approach in analyzing the creation of financial systems after communism. Excellent! Teachers of courses in money and banking and transition economics cannot do without it. − Jack Rostowski, Central European University, Budapest