The literature on the East Asian crisis has concentrated almost exclusively on the five crisis-hit economies of Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines (Asia-5). Relatively scant attention has been paid to the "twin cities" of Hong Kong and Singapore, both of which also suffered...

This paper summarises recent trade reforms in India and documents the extent to which the country has integrated with the global trading system. The paper argues that India has made important strides since the initiation of reforms in 1991. Although it lags significantly behind most of East Asia...

Free Trade Areas (FTAs) have recently become an integral part of Singapore trade policy. This paper discusses the reasons behind Singapore's recent embracement of 'new regionalism' with particular reference to the proposals to form FTAs with Japan and the US. The paper goes on to examine various...

One of the more important concepts in open macroeconomics is the “equilibrium real exchange rate†(ERER). Real exchange rate misalignments are argued to have been the cause of loss of competitiveness and growth slowdowns and eventual currency crises (in the event of sustained...

Despite numerous empirical studies examining various facets of the topic, the degree of intraregional financial integration in East Asia remains a matter of vigorous debate. This paper offers a selective survey of the recent empirical literature on financial integration, the focus being on...

Two features of East Asia’s recovery from the financial turmoil of 1997- 98 appear to be rather paradoxical. First, the regional economies (except Hong Kong, China and Malaysia) have allowed a relatively greater albeit modest degree of variability of their currencies according to market...

An East Asian community(EAC) is an idea now being seriously pursued in spite of significant challenges. Proliferating bilateral deals in Asia could emerge as building blocks towards the EAC, provided they are comprehensive, ROOs simple and are in the EPA mould. Attention needs to be given to...

The main objective of the paper is to explore the role of Japan in the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral and Technical Cooperation (BIMSTEC). The analysis suggests that BIMSTEC-Japan cooperation could made a modest contribution to Asian integration. But this is contingent upon domestic...

It is well known that high levels of regional integration enable portfolio risk diversification and capital mobility. While there have been a number of empirical attempts to verify the presence of capital mobility using the Feldstein-Horioka (FH) approach, none of them to the best of our...