Author: Samantha Igo

Advancing Climate Policy at the IMF

While the macroeconomic significance of climate change has been understood in academic scholarship for a long time, policy engagement on this topic is rather new.  While initiatives such as the Network for Greening the Financial System and the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Change have emerged, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – the only […]

Better Understanding the Renminbi’s Internationalization

By Marina Zucker-Marques In the evolving landscape of international finance, the internationalization of China’s currency, the renminbi, has become a focal point of discussion. While this doesn’t suggest that the renminbi is on track to replace the US dollar, its growing influence on the international stage does represent China’s strategy to reduce its dependence on […]

Currency Internationalization, Payment Infrastructures and Central Banks: An Institutional Analysis of Renminbi Internationalization

What role do central banks play in designing cross-border payment infrastructure as part of a broader agenda of currency internationalization? In a new journal article published in Research in International Business and Finance, Marina Zucker-Marques focuses on China’s experience from 2008 to 2023 to trace the evolution of the renminbi’s cross-border payment network, contrasting these […]

Webinar Summary – Climate, Development and International Financial Institutions: Perspectives from the Global South

By Samantha Igo On Tuesday, October 22, 2024, the Boston University Global Development Policy Center and Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution co-hosted a high-level panel alongside the 2024 International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Washington, D.C. on Global South perspectives for international financial architecture reform. The event featured a […]

Lessons from the Past: The Impact of NAFTA on Mexico’s Export Specialization Pattern

By Praveena Bandara With Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing giants like Jetour announcing plans to establish  EV assembly plants in Mexico by the end of 2024, it is a critical time for Mexico to revisit its past success with the automotive industry. This can inform future decisions and help develop mutually beneficial strategies with respect […]

Premature Specialization? The Export Re-specialization Pattern of Mexico

Since the early 1990s, Mexico has been on a path of increasing export re-specialization, the sequential shift in a country’s exporting pattern from diversification to specialization in more technology and capital-intensive products. This is an unexpected phenomenon, as export re-specialization is typically experienced by advanced economies.   In a new working paper, Praveena Bandara examines why […]

Stepping on the Scale: The G20 and Raising MDB Ambition for the 2030 Agenda and Beyond

By Maureen Heydt  The global community is running out of time and falling behind on financing shared climate and development goals, with the United Nations warning that 85 percent of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are either off track, stagnant or regressing. Likewise, efforts to limit a global temperature increase to 1.5C consistent with […]

GDP Center Round-Up: 2024 International Monetary Fund/World Bank Group Annual Meetings

By Tim Hirschel-Burns The 2024 International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank Group Annual Meetings will take place from October 21-27 in Washington, D.C. amid severe debt distress, lagging efforts to align global economic governance with modern realities, and a ticking clock to keep global climate and development goals alive. Several policy issues with important implications for […]