Weathering the Storm

In July 1997, the promise of the ¡°Asian economic miracle¡± and the ¡°Pacific century¡± devolved into economic chaos and the onset of what has become known as the Asian financial crisis. One by one, many of the region¡¯s great economic success stories suffered damage to their financial markets, their currencies, and economic well-being.This volume, the result of an April 1999 conference organized by the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research and the Brookings Institution, examines the sources and lessons of the Asian financial crisis. Experts from both sides of the Pacific have drawn valuable policy lessons from the failures and successes of four key economies in the region: Indonesia, South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan. In examining Taiwan¡¯s relative success in weathering the storm, this volume helps explain the widely varying degrees of performance of the region¡¯s affected economies. The concluding chapter focuses on general principles for the liberalization of financial markets and stabilization of macroeconomy in developing countries.This work provides much-needed new understanding and reasoned policy lessons to help the Asia-Pacific region meet its vast economic potential. It will be useful for academics and economic policymakers in governments, international organizations, universities, and research institutions, both in the region and beyond, as they assess and implement strategies for more stable regional and global economic development.

Peter C. Y. Chow is a professor of economics at the City College and Graduate Center of the City University of New York, USA. Bates Gill is the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Prior to joining CSIS, he served as inaugural director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. A former holder of the Fei Yiming Chair in Comparative Politics at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China, Gill has also directed East Asia programs at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute. He is a coauthor of China the Balance Sheet: What the World Needs to Know about the Emerging Superpower (PublicAffairs, 2006).