This paper is interested in the nexus between external debt and export competiveness. Specifically, while we find that once external debt exceeds a certain threshold it is negatively associated with export growth, we are interested in determining whether the tipping points vary based on country...

This paper develops a simple model to examine the reasons behind the capital inflow surges into selected Asian economies in the 1990s prior to the financial crisis of 1997-98. The simple analytical model reveals that persistent uncovered interest differentials and consequent capital inflows may...

This paper develops a simple model to examine the reasons behind the capital inflow surges into selected Asian economies in the 1990s prior to the financial crisis of 1997-98. The simple analytical model reveals that persistent uncovered interest differentials and consequent capital inflows may...

The conventional wisdom is that crises are largely due to swings in short-term capital (mainly bank loans in the case of East Asia). Hence economies that finance their current account deficits mainly via foreign direct investment (FDI) are seen as being less susceptible to a crisis. The spate of...

The third generation genre of currency crises models that have been popularized following the recent crises inemerging economies give prominence to the capital account. Hence, they are also commonly referred to as 'capital crisis models'. These models provide the theoretical rationale and...

Given its potentially global significance and the attention that there tends to be towards things that go wrong, it is hardly surprising that most of the literature dealing with economic events in East Asia during recent years has concentrated on the crisis period of 1997 and 1998. This work has...

The availability of bilateral capital flows between countries has given rise to a number of papers attempting to understand trends and determinants of capital flows between country pairs. Almost without exception, the papers find that the gravity model fits the data quite well. Specifically,...

Apart from exchange rate objectives which have resulted in reserve accumulation as a side effect, Asian countries have chosen explicitly to build up reserves for precautionary motives. This paper explores the issue of optimal precautionary demand for reserves by a central bank within a context...

An important element of the Thai crisis was the sterilisation of reserve outflows by the monetary authorities in an attempt to bailout fragile banks. This paper develops a new second generation currency crisis model to explore the effects of such a policy.

This paper explores the case for an Asian Monetary Fund (AMF) in light of the East Asian crisis. It discusses the role of such a regional facility, and attempts to clarify important issues such as its functional relationship to the IMF. Available evidence stresses that contagion is largely a...