This indispensable book provides a comprehensive analysis of monetary and financial integration in East Asia. It assesses the steps already taken toward financial integration and brings forward different proposals for future exchange rate arrangements in what has now become the world’s most dynamic region.

Contents: Foreword Richard N. Cooper Introduction: Prospects for Monetary and Financial Integration in East Asia – Dreams and Dilemmas Koichi Hamada, Beate Reszat and Ulrich Volz PART I: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF REGIONAL INTEGRATION 1. The ASEAN Economic Community and the European Experience Michael G. Plummer and Reid W. Click 2. The Political Economy of European Economic and Monetary Union Negotiations and Implications for East Asia Heungchong Kim 3. International Political Conflicts and Economic Integration Koichi Hamada and Inpyo Lee PART II: DEVELOPING BOND MARKETS IN EAST ASIA 4. Learning by Doing in Market Reform: Lessons from a Regional Bond Fund Guonan Ma and Eli Remolona 5. Currency Denomination in Asian Bond Markets Eiji Ogawa and Junko Shimizu PART III: EXCHANGE RATE POLICIES IN EAST ASIA: THE ROLE OF THE DOLLAR 6. East Asia’s Role in the Revived Bretton Woods System Michael P. Dooley, David Folkerts-Landau and Peter Garber 7. Current Account Surpluses and Conflicted Virtue in East Asia: China and Japan under the Dollar Standard Ronald McKinnon and Gunther Schnabl PART IV: TOWARD MONETARY INTEGRATION IN EAST ASIA? 8. Three Cases for Monetary Integration in East Asia Ulrich Volz 9. Monetary and Exchange Rate Policy Coordination in ASEAN+1 William H. Branson and Conor N. Healy PART V: CURRENCY BASKETS FOR EAST ASIA? 10. Capital Markets and Exchange Rate Stabilization in East Asia: Diversifying Risk Based on Currency Baskets Gunther Schnabl 11. Asian Currency Baskets John Williamson 12. The Role of an Asian Currency Unit Masahiro Kawai PART VI: THE ROLE OF CHINA 13. The Illusion of Precision and the Role of the Renminbi in Regional Integration Yin-Wong Cheung, Menzie D. Chinn and Eiji Fujii 14. Institutional and Structural Problems of China’s Foreign Exchange Market and the RMB’s Role in East Asia Zhang Jikang and Liang Yuanyuan Index

'Towards Monetary and Financial Integration in East Asia is an important book. East Asia, led by China, has been and will continue to be the largest, most rapidly growing region in the world. Major global imbalances persist, with East Asia in large surplus. Yet East Asian financial and monetary integration is only in the early stages of what will necessarily be a long-run process. These 14 essays by different authors address, in six Parts, fundamental long-run issues and prospects. These include the development of a regional financial architecture, liquidity provision and crisis management, surveillance mechanisms, exchange rate arrangements, currency baskets, an Asian Currency Unit, and ultimately even a single currency. The implications of the rise of China and the role of Japan underlie much of these analyses. However imperfect, the EU is the dominant relevant experience for East Asian financial and monetary integration. It is important to understand, as the authors do, that it took 47 years from the EU's nascent founding to the establishment of the euro, and that economic integration has preceded political integration. This book importantly addresses such basic issues in this time frame and with an appreciation of the political economy difficulties of financial integration.'