Richard Layard is Director of the Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics. His areas of expertise include unemployment, inflation and wage behaviour in Britain and other industrialised countries; unemployment policy, including policies on benefits and active labour market policy; wages and incomes policy; education and training; economic problems of Russia and Eastern Europe, including privatisation, restructuring and stabilisation. His publications include The Unemployment Crisis, with S Nickell and R Jackman (OUP, 1994); The Coming Russian Boom, with John Parker (The Free Press, 1996).