On 18-19 May 2017, the Annual Research Conference on the “Role of the Central Bank in Economic Development” organized by the National Bank of Ukraine in cooperation with Narodowy Bank Polski with the assistance of the Government of Canada and the Kyiv School of Economics took place in Kyiv.
Representatives of central banks, international financial organizations, as well leading scholars from world-renowned universities participated in the conference. Overall, the conference was attended by over 400 people representing 18 countries. The participants discussed a range of issues relating to the country’s economic development and central banks' monetary policy. In particular, the role of the state in promoting economic growth, challenges facing the post-Soviet country and the mandate of central banks were on the conference agenda.
The keynote speaker of the conference was John B. Taylor, Professor of Economics at Stanford University and the author of the well-known "Taylor rule” used by most central banks of advanced and developing economies when making interest rate decisions. On the second day of the conference, Mr Taylor gave a lecture on the importance of rule-based monetary policy.
The conference speakers also included Erik Berglof, the inaugural Director of the Institute of Global Affairs (IGA) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Gérard Roland, Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California (Berkeley), Laurence Ball, Professor of Economics at Johns Hopkins University, Frank Smets, Head of the Economics Area at the European Central Bank, David Archer, Head of the Central Banking Studies unit at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS ) and other renowned researchers and practitioners.
A series of educational events were held as part of the conference:
- First, the conference speakers gave lectures at the leading universities of Ukraine:
- John B. Taylor, "The Importance of Independent Rules‐Based Central Banks"
- Gérard Roland, "Evolution of post-communist countries"
- David Vavra "Lessons Learned from Countries that Experienced Difficulties in the Transition from Fixed to Float"
- Laurence Ball, "What Else Can Central Banks Do?"
- Vadym Vоlоsоvych, "Foreign Investment and Domestic Productivity: New Evidence on the Role of Competition and Knowledge Spillovers"
- Oleg Itskhoki, "Exchange Rate Disconnect in General Equilibrium".
- Third, the NBU held a two-day seminar on monetary policy for lecturers of higher educational institutions from Kyiv and oblasts of Ukraine.
Further information about the conference, its agenda and background information about the speakers is available at.
The full video of the conference is available on the conference website:
Photos from the conference and presentations by the speakers posted on the conference website at.