Cooperation between countries to ensure global economic growth: a role for the G20?

Abstract:

This paper presents a revised and extended version of the 13th Heinz Arndt Memorial Lecture, given under the auspices of the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics, in the Crawford School of Public Policy, at the Australian National University, on the 17th of September 2014. The revisions make reference to the outcomes of the meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, which took place after the lecture on 20 and 21 September at Cairns, Queensland, Australia. I am grateful to the audience at the lecture for helpful comments and to many other people for helpful discussions of the ideas raised in the paper, including, in particular, Christopher Adam, Christopher Allsopp, Olivier Blanchard, Tam Bayoumi, Max Corden, Peter Drysdale, Bob Gregory, David Gruen, Hal Hill, Raghbendra Jha, Paul Krugman, Ila Patnaik, Martin Parkinson, Heather Smith, Barry Sterland, and Paola Subacchi. Some of the ideas in the paper were set out at two seminars about the G20 held in New Delhi in early September 2014, meetings that were convened by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, the Brookings Institution (India), the National Council of Applied Economic Research, and the East Asia Bureau of Economic Research of The Australian National University. Some of the ideas were also discussed at two seminars about Australia's chairmanship of the G20 held in early April 2014 in Shanghai and Jakarta; at a meeting in Seoul in December 2013, hosted by the Korean Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the Australian Treasury, the Korea Institute of Finance, and the Korean Development Institute; and at a seminar at The Australian National University in November 2013 at which preliminary thoughts about Australia's strategy for its G20 leadership were initially aired. I am indebted to all of those with whom I canvassed these issues at those meetings. I am also grateful to colleagues in an ongoing project involving collaboration between Chatham House in London and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, which is examining the way in which international macroeconomic cooperation might best be carried out.