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This article studies East Asian political economy from a regional perspective. The Asian financial crisis showed that East Asian economies are highly regionalized. However, the linkages among Asian economies, mostly informal in nature, often appear “invisible” to many in the West, who focus more on the states and formal institutions. Drawing on a broad set of literature mostly in Asian languages, this paper provides a systematic study of informal integration in East Asia, which consists of not only regional production networks, but also ethnic Chinese business networks and subregional economic zones. It finds that the three informal mechanisms have formed an interrelated pattern of regional integration in East Asia. The nature of the economic networks is very useful in explaining the Asian crisis and the different performances of East Asian economies in the crisis. The crisis has also resulted in profound changes in informal integration. While the Japanese–led production networks have been greatly weakened, the Chinese Economic Area is rising, driven by the ethnic Chinese business networks and subregional economic zones. As a result, the Japan–dominated “flying geese pattern” has been broken. The connections between Greater China and the United States have also been enhanced and are out–competing the Japanese production networks. Many of the new developments have been ignored in the West but they are key factors that will shape the future of Asian and World political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compares the growth and financing patterns of East Asian corporations with other countries before the 1997 financial crisis. Influence of a weak financial structure on company performance; Differences in the rate of return on assets among East Asian corporations; Maturity of debt structures of East Asian companies compared with European and Latin American countries.

Focuses on the elements of financial crisis in East Asia. Brief background details on the Asian crisis; Analytical framework of the model of credit cycles; Discussion on how wholesale financial collapse can be averted by coordinated loan roll-overs in the form of a general financial freeze.

In the wake of the Asian Financial Crisis, East Asia's efforts to enhance regional financial cooperation raised the possibility of East Asia playing a more assertive role in global financial governance. However, despite the region's increased voice in governance and economic weight, East Asian financial systems and markets have mostly adapted to global norms developed in New York, London, and Washington, DC. We argue that the failure of East Asia to push an alternative vision of financial governance reflects both the lack of regional political unity and, more crucially, the divisions of interests both between and within key East Asian economies. Despite nearly universal regional dissatisfaction with global standards and institutions in the wake of the Asian Financial Crisis, these two factors have combined to prevent the development of a distinctive regional model that could be promoted at the global level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explain financial contagion between two stock markets with uncorrelated fundamentals using fluctuations in international investors' attention allocation. We also show that the degree of (non)anticipation of a crisis is crucial for the existence of contagion. Using daily data on stock market prices and news stories in the Financial Times, we find evidence supporting the attention reallocation mechanism of financial contagion: The higher the price volatility of the Asian market, the more absolute and relative attention allocated to the Asian market, and the more relative attention allocated to the Asian market, the higher the price volatility of Latin American markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Could the negative human security effects during the 1997 Financial Crisis in East Asia have been mitigated? To shed light on this question, we examine the reasons for the onset of the financial crisis, the internal and external factors, and the International Monetary Fund's (IMF's) involvement/conditionality and how this affected the economies at the micro and macro level. The emphasis here is on the micro level, i.e. individuals and businesses. Our main conclusion is that one definite policy mishap was that IMF loans were in part not available immediately when needed, and were focused on servicing debt payments. Because of this, some businesses with full order books were unable to find the necessary working credits that could have helped them pull through the crisis, which in turn led to unnecessary bankruptcies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the historical attitudes and events of financial crises and crashes in asset markets. Identification of timing patterns in the occurrence of crashes and crises; Episodes of the 19th century crises in Great Britain; Lack of lender of last resort in France and Italy; Stock market crash and depression in the U.S. in 1929; Problems in banking system and flight from currencies in East Asia.