This paper investigates whether China can benefit from a trade surplus in one period, using it to pay off the debt in the next period by manipulating the exchange rates. If the marginal utility of income is nonincreasing in the exchange rate, then the equilibrium exchange rates that yield a...

This paper investigates the possible gains from currency intervention by central banks using a two-period framework in which a trade surplus in one period must be offset by a trade deficit in the next period. It is shown that when the interest rate is zero, the optimal policy is nonintervention....