The papers collected in this volume are those presented at the sixteenth
Colloquium arranged by the Societe Universitaire Europeenne de Re-
cherches Financieres (SUERF), which took place in Lisbon in May 1991.
The Society is supported by a large number of central banks and commer-
cial banks, by other financial and business institutions, and by
personal subscriptions from academics and others interested in monetary
and financial problems. Since its establishment in 1963, it has
developed as a forum for the exchange of information, research results
and ideas among academics and practitioners in these fields, including
central bank officials and civil servants responsible for formulating
and applying monetary and financial policies, national and
international. A major activity of SUERF is to organise and conduct
Colloquia on subjects of topical interest to its members. The titles,
places and dates of previous Colloquia for which volumes of the
collected papers were published are noted on the last page of this
volume. Volumes were not produced for Colloquia held at Tarragona, Spain
in October 1970 under the title 'Monetary Policy and New Developments in
Banking' and at Strasbourg, France in January 1972 under the title
'Aspects of European Monetary Union'.