Purchasing Power Parity in East Asia: Why all the Fuss?

Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) literature is now vast with literally hundreds of papers offering tests for PPP across a broad number of countries. However, despite all the elaborate techniques employed, very little explanation is given as to why PPP is so relevant1 in policy making. This paper provides a basic understanding of PPP and shows why it is considered so important when making policy choices. The discussion is focused on the Asian economies since these have been subject to intense scrutiny following the 1997 crisis, particularly with regard to their choice of exchange rate regime and possible monetary unification.