Prospects for Monetary Cooperation and Integration in East Asia


Book Description

East Asian countries were notably uninterested in regional monetary integration until the late 1990's, when the Asian financial crisis revealed the fragility of the region's exchange rate arrangements and highlighted the need for a stronger regional financial architecture. Since then, the countries of East Asia have begun taking steps to explore monetary and financial cooperation, establishing such initiatives as regular consultations among finance ministers and central bank governors and the pooling of foreign exchange reserves. In this book Ulrich Volz investigates the prospects for monetary cooperation and integration in East Asia, using state-of-the-art theoretical and empirical tools to analyze the most promising policy options. --




Fostering Monetary And Financial Cooperation In East Asia


Book Description

Since the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998, there has been a deep and abiding desire on the part of Asian policy makers and opinion makers to enhance the region's economic, monetary and financial self-sufficiency — or at least to ring-fence the region against financial instability and give it a louder voice in global financial affairs. There has been progress in these directions, notably in the form of the Chiang Mai Initiative of financial supports and the Asian Bond Market Initiative to build a single Asian financial market. But progress is hindered by disagreements among the principal national governments — Japan, China and South Korea — and resistance to the development of an Asian bloc from both Europe and the United States.This volume considers these issues from a number of different national and analytical perspectives. Scholars from all the relevant regions and countries are represented: Japan, China, Korea, Europe and the United States. While there have been a few previous books and articles concerned with the issue of Asian integration, this is one of the first volumes to successfully draw together top contributors from these different countries and regions to address the issues in a rigorous but relatively accessible way.




Toward an East Asian Exchange Rate Regime


Book Description

East Asian exchange rates have become a global flashpoint. U.S. policymakers blame artificially low Asian currency values for global imbalances, including America's ballooning current account deficit. The solution, they argue, lies in some combination of greater exchange rate flexibility and the appreciation of Asian currencies against the dollar. Asian officials recognize the need to let their exchange rates rise, but they fear that would hamper growth and cut sharply into the value of their dollar reserves. Toward an East Asian Exchange Rate Regime offers a timely and comprehensive analysis of the resulting debates, drawing on expertise from China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States. The introduction reviews the issues at stake, sketches a variety of proposed exchange rate regimes, and discusses comparisons between East Asia and the West. Subsequent chapters examine the connection between global financial imbalances and East Asian monetary cooperation, China's potential role in regional coordination, the relationship between monetary and trade integration, and different paths toward regional cooperation. Authoritative yet concise, this is an essential primer on East Asian monetary integration. Contributors include Gongpil Choi (Korean Institute of Finance, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco), Masahiro Kawai (University of Tokyo, Asian Development Bank), Kwanho Shin (Korea University), Yunjong Wang (SK Institute), Masaru Yoshitomi (RIETI,Tokyo), and Yongding Yu (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences).




Managing Currency Crises in Emerging Markets


Book Description

The management of financial crises in emerging markets is a vital and high-stakes challenge in an increasingly global economy. For this reason, it's also a highly contentious issue in today's public policy circles. In this book, leading economists-many of whom have also participated in policy debates on these issues-consider how best to reduce the frequency and cost of such crises. The contributions here explore the management process from the beginning of a crisis to the long-term effects of the techniques used to minimize it. The first three chapters focus on the earliest responses and the immediate defense of a currency under attack, exploring whether unnecessary damage to economies can be avoided by adopting the right response within the first few days of a financial crisis. Next, contributors examine the adjustment programs that follow, considering how to design these programs so that they shorten the recovery phase, encourage economic growth, and minimize the probability of future difficulties. Finally, the last four papers analyze the actual effects of adjustment programs, asking whether they accomplish what they are designed to do-and whether, as many critics assert, they impose disproportionate costs on the poorest members of society. Recent high-profile currency crises have proven not only how harmful they can be to neighboring economies and trading partners, but also how important policy responses can be in determining their duration and severity. Economists and policymakers will welcome the insightful evaluations in this important volume, and those of its companion, Sebastian Edwards and Jeffrey A. Frankel's Preventing Currency Crises in Emerging Markets.







China and East Asia


Book Description

This book examines the need for greater East Asian cooperation and the challenges to this grand endeavor. With differing national outlooks, how can East Asia preserve peace, prosperity and stability amidst geopolitical competition? To answer this question, the volume examines the political and economic relations between Beijing and its neighbors against the backdrop of two trends: the power shift from the West to the East in the aftermath of the American Financial Crisis and the ongoing eurozone crisis, as well as the rise of China.




East Asia's Monetary Future


Book Description

Leading scholars from East Asia, Europe and the US contribute new insights to the key questions facing the organization and future of the monetary system in East Asia. Central questions discussed and analysed in the book include, amongst others: should the region move towards monetary union? Should countries peg their exchange rates to the US dollar? Is complete dollarization an option for East Asia? The authors argue that, having realized price stability over the last twenty years, in contrast to Latin America and Africa, the next logical step would be the gradual formation of various currency blocs within the region. This comprehensive discussion of the fundamental issues at stake will ensure the book's appeal to academics and researchers of Asian studies and financial economics. Financial experts working in this area and policymakers will also find much of interest to them within this book.




Monetary Cooperation in East Asia


Book Description

Surveys the growing literature on monetary cooperation in East Asia (EA) that goes beyond the Chiang Mai Initiative. It compares and contrasts the various proposals for cooperation such as the Williamson basket peg, the Asian monetary system, and the yen block as to their crisis prevention impact and their feasibility, both economic and political. Also reviews the evidence on the readiness of EA and some of its proper subsets for a currency union in the light of experiences elsewhere, especially of European monetary cooperation. Chapters: currency unions and the European Monetary Union; current exchange rate regime and monetary cooperation in EA; proposals for monetary and exchange rate cooperation in EA; and costs and benefits of a monetary union in EA.




Macroeconomic Linkage


Book Description

This volume explores East Asia's macroeconomic experience in the 1980s and the economic impact of East Asia's growth on the rest of the world. The authors explore the causes of capital flows, changes in trade balances, and exchange rate fluctuations in East Asia and their effects on other countries. These fourteen papers are organized around four themes: the overall determinants of growth and trading relations in the East Asian region; monetary policies in relation to capital controls and capital accounts; the impact of exchange rate behavior on industrial structure; and the potential for greater regional integration. The contributors examine interactions among exchange rate movements, trade balances, and capital flows; how government monetary policy affects capital flows; the effect of exchange rates on industrial structure, inventories, and prices; and the extent of regional integration in East Asia.




Growth Theories in Light of the East Asian Experience


Book Description

The contributors to this volume analyze the growth experiences of Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan in light of the recently developed endogenous growth theory to provide an understanding of the economic boom in East Asia. The theory explored in this volume attributes the phenomenal economic success of these countries to, among other factors, the role of an outward orientation—a focus on exporting rather than on protecting home markets. In addition, the importance of exchange rate behavior, of the supportive role of government policy, and of the accumulation and promotion of physical and human capital are explored in detail. This collection also examines the extent to which growth in each country became self-sustaining once it began. Demonstrating the relevance of endogenous growth theory for studying this important region, this fourth volume in the NBER-East Asia Seminar on Economics series will be of interest to observers of East Asian affairs.