CONFERENCE

The Fifteenth Jacques Polak Annual Research Conference will be held at IMF headquarters in Washington D.C. on November 13–14, 2014. The theme of this year's conference is "Cross-Border Spillovers." The conference is intended to provide a forum for discussing innovative research and to facilitate the exchange of views among researchers and policymakers. Hélène Rey (London Business School) will deliver the Mundell-Fleming Lecture.

NEW RESEARCH

IMF Global Housing Watch

The International Monetary has launched the Global Housing Watch, a webpage that tracks developments in housing markets across the world on a quarterly basis. The Housing Watch provides current data on house prices as well as metrics used to assess valuation in housing markets, such as house price-to-rent and house-price-to-income ratios.

IMF WORKING PAPER

Two Sides of the Same Coin? Rebalancing and Inclusive Growth in China

Author/Editor: Il Houng Lee, Murtaza H. Syed, and Xin Wang
Is inequality an inevitable side-effect of China's capital-intensive and export-oriented growth model? A new IMF paper provides evidence that it is, so that rebalancing China's growth may be key not only to making it more sustainable -- but also more inclusive.

IMF WORKING PAPER

Enhancing China’s Medium-Term Growth Prospects

Author/Editor: Malhar Nabar and Papa M'B. P. N'Diaye
China is at a crossroads; the steps it will take in the next few years will determine whether it can successfully transition to a high-income economy. This paper presents the challenges China faces and provides insights on how it can successfully transition to a high-income economy.

IMF WORKING PAPER

This Time They Are Different: Heterogeneity and Nonlinearity in the Relationship Between Debt and Growth

Author/Editor: Markus Eberhardt and Andrea Presbitero
The notion of a common 'tipping point' in the relationship between public debt and growth is widely accepted. A new IMF working paper suggests that once this relationship is allowed to differ across countries there is limited evidence to support the presence of a common within-country debt threshold.

IMF WORKING PAPER

Exchange Rate Management and Crisis Susceptibility: A Reassessment

Author/Editor: Atish R. Ghosh, Jonathan David Ostry, and Mahvash Saeed Qureshi
A recent IMF paper questions the bipolar prescription that emerging markets should avoid intermediate exchange rate regimes. It finds that hard pegs are more prone to growth collapses, while managed exchange rate arrangements may be resilient to crisis, depending upon the direction and circumstances under which the central bank intervenes.