ANNUAL REPORT 2008 - Polymer Bank Notes of the World

ange of household decisions related to theholding of real and financial assets, the takingof debt, risk attitudes, employment, income,pensions, intergenerational transfers, gifts,consumption and savings. Data collectionis expected to start in early 2009 in a numberof euro area countries. It is expected thatanonymised euro area micro-data on householdfinance and consumption will also be madeavailable to the research community in thefuture. Related research on household financeand consumption was presented at a conferenceorganised by the Center for Financial Studiesand the ECB in September 2008. Other topicsanalysed within this area of research were centralbank communication policies, the monitoring offinancial markets, housing markets, the role ofbanks and credit in the monetary transmissionmechanism, and heterogeneity in the euro areafrom various perspectives.Financial stability issues and their impact onmonetary policy were also explored, particularlyin the context of work carried out for the ECB’sFinancial Stability Review. The financial systemwas analysed along two dimensions: its degreeof integration and the evolution of capitalmarkets. The interaction of credit and marketrisks was also covered.Regarding research on payment and settlementsystems, the ECB joined forces with severalinterested central bankers (from the Bank ofEngland, the Reserve Bank of Australia, theFederal Reserve Bank of New York, the FederalReserve Bank of Chicago, the Bank of Canadaand De Nederlandsche Bank) and academics toestablish an informal Payment EconomicsNetwork. This network promotes awareness ofthe research undertaken on payment andsecurities settlement systems and reinforces thelink between research and practice in this field.The network’s website 24 provides links toworking papers, relevant policy documents,details on upcoming and past conferences, andinformation on research projects in this area.Under the research priority related tointernational issues, the main areas of interestwere global imbalances, on which a highlevelseminar was organised in 2008, and theinternational role of the euro. With regard tothe latter, work focused on the relationshipbetween currency invoicing and exchange ratepass-through. The results of this work will beintegrated into the report entitled “Review of theinternational role of the euro”. In the context ofthis research priority, an international extensionof the NAWM was developed.5.2 RESEARCH DISSEMINATION: PUBLICATIONSAND CONFERENCESAs in previous years, ECB staff research waspublished in the ECB’s Working Paper Seriesand Occasional Paper Series. 141 WorkingPapers and 22 Occasional Papers were publishedin 2008. A total of 116 Working Papers werewritten or co-written by ECB staff, many withEurosystem economists, while the remainderwere written by external visitors attendingconferences and workshops, working in thecontext of research networks or following aprolonged stay at the ECB for the completionof a research project. As is now the establishednorm, most of the papers are eventually expectedto be published in leading, peer-reviewedacademic journals. In 2008 ECB staff publishedmore than 30 articles in academic journals.The Research Bulletin is a regular ECBpublication which is used to disseminate researchwork of general interest to a wide audience. In2008 it focused on the credit market turmoil, thefeatures of the euro area business cycle, housingwealth and consumption, and regional inflationdynamics.The ECB organised or co-organised around 15conferences or workshops on research topics.Co-organised conferences involved the Centrefor Economic Policy Research (CEPR) andother central banks, both from the Eurosystemand from outside the Eurosystem. Furthermore,a large number of workshops and seminars24 http://www.paymenteconomics.org128 ECBAnnual Report2008