The crisis of 2008 has shown the unsustainability of the global imbalances centered on the USChina symbiotic relationship that characterized the previous decade. This has revived the so-called growth-rebalancing debate. In particular, the new emerging consensus calls for a re-orientation of the...

We present a two-country two-stage growth model capturing several salient features of the special US–China relationship and reproducing the process of export-led growth and structural change in China. In phase 1, China accumulates and sterilizes US assets (and finances US consumption) as it...