Buenos Aires, Argentina , 23 – 27 August 1999

It should be reminded that this congress was first planned to take place in Lima, Peru, in 1998. But, unfortunately, this did not prove possible. Taking into account of the situation, the congress had to be postponed to 1999.

Finally it has been possible to organise the Congress in Buenos Aires thanks to the generous grant given by the Central Bank of Argentina and to the considerable efforts made by Enrique Bour, former President of the “Asociacion Argentina de Economia Politica”, in raising the suitable funding locally.

The Congress was hosted by the “Asociacion Argentina de Economia Politica” (AAEP) who was in charge of its organisation. All practical arrangements have been co-ordinated by an organising committee placed under the direction of Enrique Bour (chairman) and the late Rolf Mantel (vice-chairman). Furthermore, a considerable amount of work has been devoted to co-ordinating arrangements, both from the scientific and organisational point of view, in close liaison with the IEA President, Jacques Dreze, Secretary General, Jean-Paul Fitoussi, David de la Croix (chairman of the programme committee), programme committee members and the local organising committee.

The five days Congress program consisted of:

 two plenary sessions (those by Jacques Drèze (CORE, Belgium)and Joseph Stiglitz (The World Bank).

 thirty three lectures were delivered, covered by two major topics:

– “Global Inequality. Where are we and where are we headed?” with a program arranged by Richard Freeman (Harvard, USA) with lectures on the global perspective, the developed world and the developing countries.

– “Advances in Macroeconomics” arranged by Jacques H. Dreze (CORE, Belgium) with lectures on growth, fluctuation, money, the expectations revolution, employment and institutions, monetary unions and macroeconomics development.

Contributors to these invited lectures included Nobel laureates Kenneth J. Arrow and Robert Solow.

 one special panel as Homage to Rolf Mantel with 4 speakers

 one special panel on the Argentine economy with 3 speakers

 seventy eight parallel sessions with 310 contributed papers covering all areas of economics

More than 1300 participants registered, coming from 54 countries. Argentina (with about 800 registrations), USA, France, UK, Belgium and India were the most represented countries.

Three volumes resulting from the Congress have been published by Palgrave Macmillan

Advances in Macroeconomic Theory, Vol. 1 , edited by Jacques Drèze (2001).

Inequality around the World, Vol. 2, edited by Richard Freeman ( 2002).

Latin American Economic Crises, Vol. 3, edited by Enrique Bour, Daniel Heyman and Fernando Navajas ( 2003).