Abstract
IMF Research Perspectives is the new online newsletter covering updates on IMF research.
The Research Department held the 19th Jacques Polak Annual Research Conference on November 1–2, 2018. This year’s conference brought together researchers and policymakers to discuss “International Spillovers and Cooperation,” a timely topic given the potentially large cross-border spillovers but decreasing appetite for cooperation. Uncertainties about the size and direction of spillovers abound in all policy areas, so the conference featured six academic sessions covering a wide range of topics, including fiscal policy spillovers, design of implementable rules for international monetary policy coordination, and the consequences of trade protection in an increasingly interconnected world. The Mundell-Fleming lecturer, Raghu Rajan, focused on the spillovers from easy liquidity and its implications for multilateralism. A high-level policy panel comprising Agustin Carstens, Takatoshi Ito, Silvana Tenreyro, and Ksenia Yudaeva discussed the global implications of rising trade protectionism as rhetoric has increasingly turned into action, the role that multilateral institutions can play in facilitating international cooperation, and the policy challenges faced by emerging markets as monetary policy normalizes in large economies.
