Wrap-up Discussion

This leads me to comparisons between what I see happening in monetary policy with fi scal policy and competition policy, as examples of other areas of applied and policy-related developments in economics. Monetary policy is different in a number of ways. Monetary policy is quite mature in the way that people think about it and reach conclusions about it. In fact, I think it is probably the area where, if you could measure it, most has been done, most has been achieved, and there is most agreement about what one does. By contrast, among the theoretical underpinnings of fi scal policy you still hear a lot of discussion about things such as Ricardian equivalence or arguments about cause and effect. In the area of competition policy, people are still arguing about Schumpeterian views and would it not be a good thing to help promote R&D and intellectual property rights, or is competition and allocative effi ciency the important thing to develop.