This volume presents the third in an annual series of collaborations between the Italian Macroeconomic Policy Group and the Centre for Economic Policy Research. It contains the papers and proceedings from a conference on ‘Capital Markets and Debt Management’ held at Castelgandolfo in June 1989. Earlier volumes in this series are High Public Debt: The Italian Experience (edited by Francesco Giavazzi and Luigi Spaventa) and A European Central Bank? Perspectives on Monetary Unification after Ten Years of the EMS (edited by Marcello de Cecco and Alberto Giovannini), both published by Cambridge University Press.

The research and conference programme has over the years created a close and stimulating interaction between scholars in macroeconomics in Italy and their counterparts in other European countries and in the United States. CEPR has been an invaluable resource in fostering this interaction.

We are grateful to Euromobiliare SpA, Centro Europa Ricerche, Prometeia and Alitalia, who provided financial support for the conference, and to the Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi, who hosted the meeting at Villa Montecucco in Castelgandolfo. We are especially grateful to Paul Compton at CEPR, for extremely fast and efficient handling of all the arrangements necessary to publish this volume, and to John Black for his efforts as production editor.