US and EU pressure on China to revalue the renminbi create the mistaken impression that there is an unavoidable conflict of interests. A switch by China to a more flexible exchange rate regime, accompanied by a shift to a new nominal anchor, would serve China’s domestic interests and simultaneously defuse protectionist sentiments abroad. A politically savvy recasting of this issue as one of Chinese monetary-policy independence could help solve many problems.

Chinese and Indian growth has generally helped by pushing up prices of commodities where Latin America has a comparative advantage and by encouraging positive trade and FDI spillovers. Some industries and firms in some countries, however, have been hurt.

When the IMF was a monitor of borrowers’ policies, dominance of the IMF Board by creditor countries was natural, but an institution whose main role is to facilitate global consultations and arbitrate currency disputes needs a more balanced shareholder structure.

Autocracies are bad, but are sometimes economically successful. Empirical analysis provides lessons on how to institutionalise good government in a wider context.

Since 2000, East Asian countries have signed over 70 trade agreements. Is this ‘noodle bowl’ of regional agreements in the world’s most dynamic economic region a threat to the multilateral global trading system and to other regions’ economic prosperity?

Data on 12,400 firms in 120 Chinese cities show that state-owned firms have lower marginal returns to capital than private or foreign firms. This inefficiency costs China 5% of its GDP and suggests there would be big gains to further financial and corporate-governance reforms.

The authors of CEPR DP6264 analyse the precise nature of China's exchange rate regime from July 2005 to early 2007 and make some surprising discoveries.