This paper surveys the theoretical and empirical literature on the effects of the real exchange rate (RER) on international trade, economic development and growth. We summarize the main conceptual issues, briefly discuss the relevance of the RER as an instrument of development policy, provide an overview of the macroeconomic and microeconomic mechanisms that link the RER to trade and long-run growth and development, analyse the challenges – especially the disconnect between theory and data – that often arise in empirical applications, and discuss new avenues for future research. In the process, we present some updated estimates and illustrative figures. The mechanisms through which the RER influences long-run growth and structural change remains a promising area of research and the relevance of individual channels in different contexts deserves much more careful investigation. Greater data availability should help fill some of these gaps in our understanding.

中文翻译：

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真实汇率与发展理论、证据、问题和挑战

本文调查了有关实际汇率 (RER) 对国际贸易、经济发展和增长的影响的理论和实证文献。我们总结了主要的概念问题，简要讨论了 RER 作为发展政策工具的相关性，概述了将 RER 与贸易和长期增长和发展联系起来的宏观经济和微观经济机制，分析了挑战——尤其是理论和数据之间的脱节——这经常出现在经验应用中，并讨论未来研究的新途径。在此过程中，我们提供了一些更新的估计和说明性数据。RER 影响长期增长和结构变化的机制仍然是一个有前途的研究领域，不同背景下各个渠道的相关性值得更仔细的研究。更大的数据可用性应该有助于填补我们理解中的一些空白。