Advancing Regional Monetary Cooperation The Case of Fragile Financial Markets

Advancing Regional Monetary Cooperation examines regional monetary cooperation as a strategy to enhance macroeconomic stability in developing countries and emerging markets. The future of regional monetary cooperation is being questioned by the euro crisis: should developing countries and emerging markets, which are already actively engaged in regional monetary cooperation, refrain from such initiatives to avoid ending up in a crisis? Or should the euro zone crisis be regarded as precisely the reason to pursue regional monetary cooperation, for example in order to jointly shield fragile financial markets against volatility in international financial markets? These are highly relevant questions for the developing world and the future of the global monetary system. Thisbook addresses these questions by reframing traditional theoretical approaches to regional monetary integrationin an interdisciplinary way. Special attention is given to the role of emerging markets as anchor countries in regional monetary cooperation. Detailed case studies are provided, which examine stabilizing and destabilizing elements of regional monetary cooperation in Southern Africa and Southeast Asia, and compare these findings with South America in a cross-regional perspective.Thisbook will appeal to an academic audience interested in the interplay of global, domestic and regional arrangements to provide liquidity in periods of crisis and to enhance macroeconomic stability. The issues raised are also highly relevant for policy makers confronted with an increasingly multipolar worldin whichdeveloping areas are looking for adequate ways to integrate at the regional level.