| Abstract: | In this paper we characterize the largest exchange ideal of a ring R as the set of those elements x ∈ R such that the local ring of R at x is an exchange ring. We use this result to prove that if R and S are two rings for which there is a quasi-acceptable Morita context, then R is an exchange ring if and only if S is an exchange ring, extending an analogue result given previously by Ara and the second and third authors for idempotent rings. We introduce the notion of exchange associative pair and obtain some results connecting the exchange property and the possibility of lifting idempotents modulo left ideals. In particular we obtain that in any exchange ring, orthogonal von Neumann regular elements can be lifted modulo any one-sided ideal. |
