Exports are all the rage this season. Cries for adjustment of global imbalances become disputes over who has to “shoulder the burden” of reducing their current-account surpluses; the collapse of the Doha trade talks makes every World Trade Organisation member acutely aware of barriers to their export success; and the integration of China and India into the global labour force raises “competitiveness” once again to prime status as the policy goal on politicians’ lips.

Yet export competitiveness has little beyond being fashionable to recommend it as an objective for economic policy. Like today’s again trendy platform shoes, pursuit of competitiveness gives one a temporary boost that is un­stable, untenable and, with repeated use, unhealthy. A dozen years ago Paul Krug­man, the US economist, famously called competitiveness “a dangerous obsession” among US policymakers. In fact, in every decade, in all advanced economies, a focus on export com­petitiveness tends to erode living standards and distracts policymakers from a more beneficial emphasis on productivity.