| Title: |
Financial Markets and Policies in East Asia |
| Editor: |
Gordon de Brouwer |
| Publisher: |
Routledge, London and New York |
| Date/Time: |
2002 |
| Pages: |
English text 340 pages (Hardcover) |
| ISBN: |
0-415-27388-9 |
Review:
This book is based on the papers first presented at a conference held at the Australian National University in September 2000, sponsored jointly by the University and the IMF. The conference focused on recent changes in monetary and exchange rate systems as well as financial policies in East Asia since the East Asian crisis in the late 1990s.
All the chapters in this book are based on sound empirical analysis and solid data, and most of the debating issues on the Asian financial crisis are properly covered. Especially useful are an introductory review by Gordon de Bruower in Chapter 1, a microeconomic analysis of the financial and corporate sectors by Masahiro Kawai in Chapter 5, and a macroeconomic analysis of policies and exchange rate regimes by David Nellor in Chapter 8, which together give us a comprehensive account of the East Asian crisis and its recovery as well as its future prospects.
Probably the most interesting chapter, however, is Eisuke Sakakibara's "Subregional currency union – Japan and Korea" (Chapter 13), where "Mr. Yen" tries to explores a possibility of finding an optimal currency regime at least in the short or medium run, if not in the long run, such as a common Asian currency or a currency union between Japan and Korea, for example. "A stable and mutually acceptable yen/won rate would boost industry performance and could encourage mutually beneficially joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions. There has been a proposal to establish a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries and a yen/won agreement could take place in tandem," says Sakakibara. In this connection, one might find it interesting to read Yoichi Okita's article, "Japan needs more free trade agreements," on the GLOCOM Platform:
http://www.glocom.org/opinions/essays/200203_okita_japan/
In a somewhat different context, an Australian-New Zealand currency union is also discussed by Mark Crosby and Glenn Otto in Chapter 14. For a comprehensive discussion on Japan-Australian relations, see Toyoo Gyohten's article, "Waves on globalization, how Japan and Australia should respond," on the GLOCOM Platform:
http://www.glocom.org/opinions/essays/200203_gyohten_waves/
A list of contents in this book is as follows.
| "Financial Markets and Policies in East Asia" |
| List of contents: |
| 1 | Debating financial markets and policies in East Asia |
| | Gordon de Brouwer |
| 2 | Recent development in Asian financial markets |
| | Dominic Wilson |
| 3 | Patterns of bank intermediation and structure: a Korean perspective |
| | Sang Whan Kim, Haesik Park, Hae Wang Chung |
| 4 | Private capital flows in East Asia: boom, bust and beyond |
| | Ramkishen S. Rajan and Reza Siregar |
| 5 | Bank and corporate restructuring in crisis-affected East Asia: from systemic collapse to reconstruction |
| | Masahiro Kawai |
| 6 | The boom, bust and restructuring of Indonesian banks |
| | Mari Pangestu and Manggi Habir |
| 7 | Financial market liberalisation and economic stability in China |
| | Fan Gang |
| 8 | Securing consistency in macroeconomic policy |
| | David Nellor |
| 9 | Fixed or floating: is it still possible to manage in the middle? |
| | Reuven Glick |
| 10 | The viability of inflation targeting for emerging market economies |
| | Guy Debelle |
| 11 | Comparing monetary policy operating procedures in Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia and Thailand |
| | C.E.V. Borio and Robert N. McCauley |
| 12 | Does a formal common-basket peg in East Asia make economic sense? |
| | Gordon de Brouwer |
| 13 | Subregional currency union – Japan and Korea |
| | Eisuke Sakakibara |
| 14 | An Australia-New Zealand currency union |
| | Mark Crosby and Glenn Otto |
|
