This volume contains recent surveys of the most important topics in economics.

This is the first of three volumes containing edited versions of papers and commentaries presented in invited symposium sessions of the Eighth World Congress of the Econometric Society. The papers summarize and interpret recent key developments and discuss future directions in a wide range of topics in economics and econometrics. The papers cover both theory and applications. Written by leading specialists in their fields these volumes provide a unique survey of progress in the discipline.

1. Auctions and efficiency Eric Maskin
2. Why every economist should learn some auction theory Paul Klemperer
3. Global games: theory and applications Stephen Morris and Hyun Song Shin
4. Testing contract theory: a survey of some recent work Pierre-Andre Chiappori and Bernard Salanie
5. The economics of multidimensional screening Jean-Charles Rochet and Lars A. Stole
Discussion of papers by P. A. Chiappori and B. Salanie and by J.-.C Rochet and L. A. Stole Patrick Legros
6. Theories of fairness and reciprocity: evidence and economic applications Ernst Fehr and Klaus M. Schmidt
7. Hyperbolic discounting and consumption Christopher Harris and David Laibson
Discussion of papers by E. Fehr and K. M. Schmidt and by C. Harris and D. Laibson Glenn Ellison
8. Agglomeration and economic theory Masahisa Fujita and Jacques-Francois Thisse
9. Non-market interactions Edward Glaeser and Jose A. Scheinkman.