Reform of the International Monetary System ― An Asian Perspective

By providing a comprehensive overview of policy proposals for the international monetary system from an Asian perspective, this book aims to identify what innovations are needed to reform the international monetary and financial system to promote financial stability and sustainable economic growth for emerging economies. The book is organized into four parts. Part 1 discusses major theoretical and empirical issues related to reform of the international monetary system. Part 2 includes two chapters that present the recent developments and challenges for managing capital flows. Part 3 presents different perspectives on regional currency cooperation in Asia and Europe by assessing the evidence supporting increased currency coordination in Asia and by review issues of policy cooperation in the Euro area after the global financial crisis and their implications for Asia. Part 4 discusses emerging issues for regional/global cooperation and financial safety nets. The main inference of the book is that, in light of the drawbacks of the existing international monetary system exposed in the global financial crisis, along with other countries, Asian emerging economies should work cooperatively to reform and strengthen international monetary and financial policy. To do so, regional and global monetary cooperation is needed and financial safety nets should be strengthened to alleviate the impact of possible global financial crises. This will be one of the first books written about the global financial crisis and the on going the European sovereign debt crisis to comprehensively address the issues related to currency cooperation, based on the Euro area experience, with the specific implications for Asia.

Masahiro Kawai is professor, Graduate School of Public Policy, Tokyo University, Japan. He was dean and CEO of the Asian Development Bank Institute from 2007 to 2014, special advisor to the ADB president in charge of regional economic cooperation and integration, deputy vice minister for international affairs of Japan's Ministry of Finance and chief economist for the World Bank's East Asia and Pacific region. He was also professor of economics at the University of Tokyo after serving as associate professor at Johns Hopkins University. His recent publications focus on economic regionalism. He holds a BA in economics from the University of Tokyo and a PhD in economics from Stanford University.

Mario B. Lamberte is team leader, COMPETE Project, The Asia Foundation, Makati City, Philippines. Previously he was director of research at the Asian Development Bank Institute, the president of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies and advisor to the Philippine senate on legislative measures pertaining to financial markets and trade policy reforms. His current areas of interest are regional economic cooperation and integration, financial markets and development economics. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of the Philippines and did his post-doctoral studies at Stanford University.

Peter J. Morgan is senior consultant for research, Asian Development Bank Institute, Tokyo, Japan. Previously he served in Hong Kong, China as chief Asia economist for HSBC, responsible for macroeconomic analysis and forecasting for Asia. Before that, he was chief Japan economist for HSBC and earlier held similar positions at Merrill Lynch, Barclays de Zoete Wedd and Jardine Fleming. Prior to entering the financial industry, he worked as a consultant at International Business Information KK in Tokyo, specializing in financial sector consulting. His current research interests are macroeconomic and financial sector policy.