June 7, 2002
Contact: Thomas L. Lavelle, Assistant Vice President and Public Information Officer

Boston -- The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is pleased to announce a new, online series of papers, the Public Policy Discussion Papers Series.

Public Policy Discussion Papers present new policy research, research surveys, or research bearing on policy issues. The papers are written for policymakers, informed business people, and academics by economists at the Boston Fed. Many of the papers present research intended for professional journals.

The first paper in the series, “Economic Policy and Prospects in Iraq,” by Christopher Foote, William Block, Keith Crane, and Simon Gray, evaluates the attempts of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq to stabilize and reform the Iraqi economy along market lines.

Christopher Foote is a Senior Economist at the Boston Fed; William Block is an economist at the U.S. Department of the Treasury; Keith Crane is a senior economist at the RAND Corporation; and Simon Gray is Adviser to the Governor at the Bank of England. All four authors worked at the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.

The introduction of this series, available online at http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/ppdp/index.htm, marks the start of a comprehensive initiative to revamp the presentation of Boston Fed economists’ scholarly and policy-oriented writings.

As part of this initiative, publication of the New England Economic Review will be discontinued after the publication of one more issue, forthcoming within the next six weeks, and a new print and online publication, Research Review, will be launched later this year. Research Review will provide an overview of recent research by Boston Fed economists and will include executive summaries of Public Policy Discussion Papers and Working Papers, titles or summaries of published speeches and articles, and programs or summaries of Bank-sponsored conferences.

In addition, the Bank plans to introduce Public Policy Briefs, an online summary of selected briefings on topics of current interest to policymakers and others. The Bank will also continue to publish the Regional Review.

The Public Policy Discussion Papers series and the Public Policy Briefs complement the Bank’s existing Working Papers series. The Working Papers series, also an online offering, presents statistical or technical studies generally written for economists with strong technical backgrounds. Regional Review, a quarterly magazine, integrates academic research, reporting, and historical perspective into engaging, vividly illustrated articles on a broad range of topics relevant to the U.S. and New England economies.