Dear Colleagues and Friends,

It is our pleasure to invite you to attend the 4th International Conference on Sovereign Bond Markets.

The conference this year focuses on Public Debt Markets, Government Expenditures and Fiscal Prudence and is sponsored by the National University of Singapore Business School and its Centre for Asset Management Research and Investments. Co-sponsors include the University of Michigan|Mitsui Life Financial Research Center, Research Center SAFE at Goethe University Frankfurt, NYU Stern|Salomon Center for the Study of Financial Institutions, the Center for Financial Research at Waseda University and the Bank of Canada.

This year the focus of the conference is on the linkage between sovereign debt and real economic activity. To a certain extent, and at least in the short-run, public debt promotes economic growth given it allows the government to build infrastructure, provide health care, improve education and national job training efforts, all of which keep its citizens healthy and productive. That said, a common view is that too high a public debt level will impinge on overall economic growth in the long-run. However, not everyone agrees on the direction or cause of this correlation. This conference will analyze the causes and channels by which sovereign debt, unconventional monetary policies and economic growth are interlinked and their impact on savings, investments, capital markets, uncertainty, interest rates and liquidity both in developed and emerging countries.

Submissions of both theoretical and empirical work are welcome as long as they fit into the broad topic of the conference.

• Of particular interest are papers addressing the linkage between government debt and economic growth in the short and long-run, especially when investors are willing to pay governments to take on debt because of the negative interest rates.
• Spill-overs from quantitative easing in industrialized countries on emerging markets.
• Impact of quantitative easing on sovereign bond market liquidity.
• Sovereign bond market liquidity in emerging countries, especially in Asia.

Papers in other related areas of sovereign bond markets will also be considered.

The final program will include both submitted and invited papers and a keynote speaker. The Conference will also feature a panel discussion (with former Central Bank Governors) on major outstanding issues in sovereign bond markets, and fiscal and monetary policy making..

The Scientific Committee for this Conference includes:

Bernard Yeung, NUS Business School

James Chapman, Bank of Canada

Michael Fleming, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Simone Manganelli, European Central Bank

Loriana Pelizzon, Research Center SAFE - Goethe University Frankfurt

Paolo Pasquariello, University of Michigan

Marti G. Subrahmanyam, NYU Stern

Jun Uno, Waseda University

Toshinao Yoshiba, Bank of Japan