The Theory and Practice of International Policy Coordination: Does Coordination Pay?

This paper is a review of the theory and practice of international economic policy coordination. Coordination is defined as the joint control of some economic policies by several countries. We review the experience and the preferences of policymarkers for coordination since the War, and distinguish between the relative gains and the absolute gains. We then consider the evidence, from the academic literature, as to whether coordination is likely to pay, and we pick out some particular problems which make the policy design problem very difficult. Given that, we suggest a framework for coordinated policies involving a rule-based exchange rate management scheme aimed principally at capturing the gains of relative coordination.