The first decade of economic and monetary union in Europe (EMU) has been a huge success. EMU has significantly benefited its member countries and accelerated the European integration process. Imbalances within EMUdifferences in growth, inflation, competitiveness, current account and budget...

The paper investigates the labor market and social impacts of the global financial and economic crisis in Asia and the Pacific as well as national policy responses to the crisis. It draws on recent macroeconomic, trade, production, investment, and remittances data to assess the employment and...

This paper extends our previous paper (Aizenman, Chinn, and Ito 2008) and explores some of the unexplored questions. First, we examine the channels through which the trilemma policy configurations affect output volatility. Secondly, we investigate how trilemma policy configurations affect the...

Despite creating a record of number of jobs in 2007 and 2008 (237,000 jobs in 2007 and 202,400 jobs in the first three quarters of 2008) and averaging a growth rate of nearly 10 percent from 2004 to 2007, Singapore was the first East Asian country to fall into a recession from the current global...

The policy measures taken to date in the Asia-Pacific region are helping to cushion the blow of the global recession. Monetary and fiscal policy stimulus has been strong and there has been considerable attention given to strengthening the financial system. Questions, however, remain about how...

This paper discusses the role of state intervention for prevention, containment, and resolution of financial crises based mainly on the Korean experience during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Crises in emerging market and developing economies tend to be more complicated than those faced by...

How much can regional monitoring of financial markets and coordination of financial sector policies contribute to preventing and mitigating financial crises? This paper reviews and compares the experiences of Europe and Asia, which have taken different routes and have achieved different levels...

A butterfly in New York flaps its wingsand may finally cause a storm in BeijingWellthenhow about a devastating tsunami in New York? In the last monththe whole world watched the American financial crisis unfolding day-by-dayRipples from the Wall Street spread to each corner of the global...

This paper contrasts the United States (US) and European situations during the crisis and examines how much of the crisis has been imported by Europe from the US. The paper argues that Europe never had a chance to avoid contagion from the US. It also documents the relatively limited reaction of...

The paper examines the impact of recent inflation and financial shocks on the vulnerable, and explores policy design to reduce both future shocks and vulnerability to shocks. Inflation affects the typical savings cum pension portfolio and the specific consumption basket of the old, as prices of...