" It has been argued that one solution to global external imbalances is for countries with current account surpluses to undertake structural reforms. This would raise their potential growth, which is assumed to put downward pressure on external surpluses. This article takes a closer look at how structural reforms in labour, product and financial markets could be expected to affect current accounts. It then goes on to test empirically, using pooled time-series techniques (in a framework that controls for the influence of relative cyclical positions, government fiscal balances and the real exchange rate), whether or not reforms (based on OECD and other indicators for the areas mentioned) would have any significant link with external balances. The overall finding is that some of the indicators of structural reforms do have a significant relationship with the current account but their impact is quite limited. Moreover the relationship varies across reform areas and countries. Although reforms are beneficial in their own right, they are not always conducive to reducing global imbalances."

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