Fourth Annual SEEMHN Conference

On 27 March 2009, the National Bank of Serbia hosted the 4th Annual Conference of the South-East European Monetary History Network (SEEMHN)¹ . The first three annual conferences were successfully organised in Sofia (BNB) in 2006, Vienna (OeNB) in 2007 and Athens (BoG) in 2008. The Belgrade conference gathered more than 30 economists, economic historians and representatives of central banks from 11 countries: Austria, Bulgaria, England, France, Germany, Greece, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey. The National Bank of Serbia has been a SEEMHN member since the network’s foundation and its representatives have taken part in all previous SEEMHN conferences. 

The main topic of the conference was: “Economic and Financial Stability in Southeastern Europe in a Historical and Comparative Perspective”. At four sessions (Financial Stability and Monetary Policy, Financial Stabilisation in the Interwar Period, Business Cycles and Financial Stability, Hyperinflation and Stabilisation) 17 working papers were presented (Conference Programme). The conference proceedings are currently in the press².

1. Common factors in South-East Europe’s business cycles 1899 - 1989
   Matthias Morys, University of York
   Martin Ivanov, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
2. „What did guide investors decisions” during the classical gold standard era? The case of Ottoman Empire, 1880-1914
   Ali Coskun Tuncer, LSE and Ondokuz Mayis University
3. Financial stability, monetary autonomy and fiscal interference: Bulgaria in search of its way, 1879-1913
   Kalina Dimitrova, Bulgarian National Bank
   Luca Fantacci, Bocconi University, Milan
4. Monetary conditions in the Kingdom of Serbia (1884-1914)
   Branko Hinić, National Bank of Serbia
   Milan Sojić, National Bank of Serbia
   Ljiljana Đurđević, National Bank of Serbia
5. Banking crisis in Germany and the first step towards recovery
   Martin J. Pontzen, Deutsche Bundesbank
6. Charles Rist and the French missions in Romania 1929-1933. Why the „money doctors“ failed?
   Dominique Torre, University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis - GREDEG - CNRS
   Elise Tosi, CERAM Business School
7. Finance and development in Southeast Europe in the interwar period
   Kiril Kossev, University of Oxford
8. The National Bank of Romania during the years of the Great Depression – 1929-1933
   Elisabeta Blejan, National Bank of Romania
   Brîndusa Costache, National Bank of Romania
   Adriana Aloman, National Bank of Romania
9. Slovenian banks during Great Depression
   Žarko Lazarević, Institute for Contemporary History, Slovenia
10. Historical Archives of Societe Generale and economic stability in South-Eastern Europe. Presentation and new perspectives of research
    Xavier Breuil, Historical Archives Société Générale
11. Foreign long term government loans of Serbia 1862-1914
    Dragana Gnjatović, Faculty of Geo-Economy, Megatrend University
12. The economic and financial stability in Turkey: a historical perspective
    Yuksel Gormez, Central Bank of Turkey
    Serkan Yigit, Central Bank of Turkey
13. Foreign financial capital as the catalyst of Serbian economic development before the Second World War
    Vesna Aleksić, Faculty of Geo-Economy, Megatrend University
14. World financial crisis and behaviour of short-term interest rates – international and domestic aspects
    Đorđe Đukić, Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade
    Mališa Đukić, Belgrade Banking Academy, Union University
15. Do the new EU member states form an Optimum Currency Area with the eurozone? Evidence from six Central and Eastern European Countries
    Dimitrios Sideris, Bank of Greece and Panteion University
16. Essentiality of money and money demand in explosive hyperinflation
    Alexandre Sokić, Pôle Universitaire Léonard de Vinci
17. Serbian foreign exchange market during 2004-2008
    Mario Jovanović, Ruhr-University Bochum

Next SEEMHN conference

The fifth annual conference will be hosted in Istanbul on 16 April 2010 by the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey.

•  Call for papers

Previous SEEMHN conferences:

1st annual conference - “Monetary and Fiscal Policies in South-Eastern Europe: Historical and Comparative Perspective”, April 2006, Sofia, Bulgarian National Bank.

• Conference proceedings

2nd annual conference – “The Experience of Exchange Rate Regimes in South-Eastern Europe in a Historical and Comparative Perspective”, April 2007, Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbank.

• Conference proceedings

3rd annual conference – “Banking and Finance in South-Eastern Europe: Lessons of Historical Experience”, March 2009, Athens, Bank of Greece.

• Conference proceedings

¹The South-Eastern European Monetary History Network (SEEMHN) was established in April 2006 at the initiative of the Bulgarian National Bank and the Bank of Greece, with the main objective of spreading knowledge about SEE economic history as an integral part of European experience. The network focuses particularly on financial and monetary history and brings together representatives of central banks, economists and economic historians. Furthermore, the SEEMHN Data Collection Task Force was established within the network, aimed at establishment of a database with 19th and 20th century financial and monetary statistics of SEE countries.

²The views expressed in papers are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of their respective institutions or of the National Bank of Serbia.