Financial systems in the East Asian region are commanding worldwide attention. Japan's financial sector, with an ailing banking system in the aftermath of a bubble economy, is undergoing a "Big Bang" deregulation, liberalization, and securitization. At the same time, the rehabilitation of Southeast Asian and Korean economies in the wake of the Asian financial crisis awaits restoration of their banking sectors. The region's bank-dominated and development finance-oriented financial systems are coming into friction with global capital markets that lack adequate architecture. In this volume, researchers from ten East Asian think- tanks analyse the financial systems in their respective economies. They survey the financial sector deregulation and liberalization that took place in the midst of economic booms and they evaluate the role of the financial systems in the region's current economic misfortunes. Together, the pieces in this volume lay the groundwork for understanding how financial systems in East Asia have evolved as the economies have grown more complex and capital markets have globalized, and how these systems must adapt to move beyond today's crisis to serve the region's economies in the future.

The study of financial frameworks focuses on corporate finance and analyzes the relationship between financing patterns and the level of development of securities markets and financial liberalization in the region.

This book is about the restructuring of industry in ten East Asian economies at the start of the twenty-first century. It examines the dynamic aspects of the region's industrial structures -- the changes occurring with globalisation fuelled by liberalisation and by a paradigm shift from industrial technology to information technology. The traditional "flying geese" concept is less relevant to explaining the economic and industrial development in the region as the pattern has become less predictable.

This volume analyses developments in East Asian capitalism since the 1980s, focussing on three main areas: business systems, financial structures, and labour markets.

This book brings together scholars from different disciplines to examine the evolving patterns of economic organisation across Northeast and Southeast Asia against the backdrop of market liberalisation, political changes and periodic economic crises since the 1990s. More specifically, it provides an interdisciplinary account of variations, continuities and changes in the institutional structures that shape business systems and practices and govern innovation patterns, together with analyses of their impact on established systems of economic coordination and control. In line with this analytical focus, the project has three different yet interrelated objectives. In the first place, building on the comparative business systems framework, it elucidates the nature and properties of business system changes and continuities in Asia since the 1990s. Second, it develops novel theoretical propositions concerning the primary causes of these changes and continuities, representing a collective effort to theorise the changing varieties of Asian economic organisation. Finally, it explores the causal pathways through which the changing institutional structures governing business systems have shaped and reshaped innovation strategies and trajectories across the national, sectoral and firm levels of analysis.

This volume addresses issues that are critical to defining a new paradigm for East Asian economic growth. Specifically, the authors examine the strategies adopted in coping with the crisis; policy responses to rectify weaknesses that might have induced or aggravated the crisis; and structural problems to be resolved in order to bring East Asian economies back firmly to a path of long-term growth.

Regional cooperation and integration have emerged as key issues for East Asia following the financial crisis. This book explores these issues, and examines the degree to which a new paradigm is emerging. It reviews the evolution of the concepts and practices of regionalism in East Asia, and considers the factors which are shaping new patterns of regional co-operation and integration. It includes discussions of historical developments, economic co-operation, socio-political factors, and defence and security. It considers the role of those states, including China and Japan, which have distinctive approaches to international relations, and assesses the role of regional international bodies such as ASEAN.

Ratings, Rating Agencies and the Global Financial System brings together the research of economists at New York University and the University of Maryland, along with those from the private sector, government bodies, and other universities. The first section of the volume focuses on the historical origins of the credit rating business and its present day industrial organization structure. The second section presents several empirical studies crafted largely around individual firm-level or bank-level data. These studies examine (a) the relationship between ratings and the default and recovery experience of corporate borrowers, (b) the comparability of credit ratings made by domestic and foreign rating agencies, and (c) the usefulness of financial market indicators for rating banks, among other topics. In the third section, the record of sovereign credit ratings in predicting financial crises and the reaction of financial markets to changes in credit ratings is examined. The final section of the volume emphasizes policy issues now facing regulators and credit rating agencies.

During the 1980s and 1990s Asian 'developmental states' attracted much attention in political science and economics literature, but the role of law in the economic development was neglected. It was only after the Asian crisis of 1997 that many analysts began to focus on a lack of regulation and transparency as a major factor triggering the crisis. The crucial questions now are how successful the current reforms will be, and which features of the Asian approach to commercial law will be resistant to reform pressures. This book examines the prospects for commercial law reform in Asia, giving particular attention to Japan and Singapore, as frequently cited role models for Asian developmentalism, and also examining development related business laws in countries such as China, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.