Liberalization and Regulation of Capital Flows: Lessons for Emerging Market Economies

Rakesh Mohan and Muneesh Kapur
Additional contact information
Rakesh Mohan: Asian Development Bank Institute

Macroeconomics Working Papers from East Asian Bureau of Economic Research

Abstract: Capital flows to emerging market economies (EMEs) have been characterized by high volatility since the 1980s. In recent years (especially since 2003), although gross as well as net capital flows to the EMEs have increased, they could not be absorbed domestically. Overall, savings have flowed uphill from EMEs to advanced economies, challenging the conventional view that capital flows to EMEs are always beneficial through augmentation of their resources leading to greater investment. Full capital account liberalization can impart avoidable volatility and have an adverse impact on growth prospects of EMEs. Available evidence is strongly in favor of a calibrated and well-sequenced approach to opening up the capital account and its active management, along with complementary reforms in other sectors. Greater caution is needed in the liberalization of debt flows. Despite much advice to the contrary, most EMEs manage their capital accounts actively to cushion their economies from undue volatility, including interventions in the foreign exchange markets accompanied by sterilization. Sound macroeconomic and financial policiesaccompanied by prudent capital account management, greater exchange rate flexibility, purposive use of prudential regulation, and continued financial market development practiced by most Asian EMEs over the past decadehave cushioned their economies from the current global financial crisis that started in 2007. They have successfully achieved a virtuous circle of continuing growth, low and stable inflation, and financial stability. How these elements can be best combined will depend on the country and on the period : There is no one size fits all. Such a discretionary approach does put a great premium on the skill of policymakers and can run the risk of markets perceiving central bank actions becoming uncomfortably unpredictable. Such risk is mitigated by a record of successful management.

Keywords: Emerging Market Economies; liberalization; regulation; capital flows (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E42 E44 E52 E58 G15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.eaber.org/node/22877 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 301 [REDIRECT LOOP] Moved Permanently (http://www.eaber.org/node/22877 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22877 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22877 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22877 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22877 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22877 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22877 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22877)

Related works:
Chapter: Liberalization and Regulation of Capital Flows: Lessons for Emerging Market Economies (2012)
Working Paper: Liberalization and Regulation of Capital Flows: Lessons for Emerging Market Economies (2010)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eab:macroe:22877

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Macroeconomics Working Papers from East Asian Bureau of Economic Research Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Shiro Armstrong ().