International Economy

Photo: Flickr/Moyan Brenn

Overview

The Lowy Institute’s International Economy program has a very broad scope with the world’s GDP amounting to some US$78 trillion in 2014. The program covers a range of topics across international finance, trade, business, and governance. The program closely follows key players in the international economy including the United States, China, and India, and considers how trends in the international economy affect Australia. 

See the examples below to get a feel for the types of questions we ask, and the different answers we provide.

• International trade
  • Should Australia join the Trans Pacific Partnership? 
  • Are free trade agreements good for Australia? 
• Australia’s commodity boom
  • Is Australia set for a slowdown after the commodities boom? 
• China
  • Is China headed for a financial crisis? 
  • Can China rebalance its economy away from investment?  
• India
  • Can India get its subsidy payments under control? 
  • Can India reclaim high growth? 
• The global financial crisis and policies designed to address it
  • Are currency wars bad?
  • Are there other radical policies that could have been employed in the GFC? 
• International business cycles
  • Are we in a world of high volatility? 
  • Will investment bounce back? 
• Economic governance
  • Can global governance architecture accommodate China? 
  • How is the United States responding to challenges to their hegemony?
  • For detailed analysis on economic governance through the G20, visit the G20 Studies Centre.
• Globalisation
  • Is globalisation on the retreat? 
  • Is there any way to revive multilateralism? 

What the Lowy Institute does

The International Economy program aims to explain developments in the international economy, and influence policy. It does so by undertaking independent analytical research. The International Economy program contributes to the Lowy Institute’s core publications: policy briefs and policy analyses. For example, the program contributed the Lowy Institute Paper Beyond the Boom, by John Edwards, which argued that Australia’s transition away from the commodities boom will be quite smooth. The program hosts economy-focused events, and economy-focused blog posts can be found on the Interpreter. For updates on publications and events, follow @leonberkelmans and @tris_sainsbury on twitter. An RSS feed of all output from the program can be found by following the Feed icon at the top of this page.