Financial Regionalism and the International Monetary System

At the apex of the euro area crisis, the Europeans have established a temporary regional fund (EFSF) and will soon set a new, permanent regional institution (ESM). In Asia, policymakers have been considering ways to strengthen their own financial arrangements to more effectively enable their region to cope with market pressures.

While financial regionalism has become an increasingly important area in the field of international financial relations, it is not clear to what extent these regional initiatives could compete (if at all) or complement the mission that the International Monetary Fund discharges in the global financial system.

Against the backdrop of the global economic crisis and the ongoing euro crisis, a leading team of authors in Financial Regionalism and the International Monetary System envisage how regional financing arrangements will affect not only regional members within Asia, Europe, the Persian Gulf, or Latin America but also the global financial architecture as a whole.

Financial Regionalism and the International Monetary System offers a touchstone for international and domestic policymakers, academics, and global experts by:

• assessing key political drivers in support for financial regionalism and their sustainability in the foreseeable future,
• evaluating the effectiveness of regional financial arrangements,
• investigating the implications of an increasing number of
• regional financial initiatives for the international monetary system,
• revisiting the historical relationship among regional financial arrangements and the IMF.

Contributors include:

• Jean Pisani-Ferry (Bruegel),
• Charles Wyplosz (Institute for Graduate Studies, Geneva),
• Alessandro Leipold (Lisbon Council),
• Yu Yongding (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences),
• José Antonio Ocampo (Columbia University),
• James Boughton (IMF Historian, retired),
• Shinji Takagi (Osaka University),
• Chalongphob Sussangkarn (Thai Development Research Institute),
• Barry Eichengreen (University of California–Berkeley), and
• Iwan Azis (ADB).