The Asian crisis of 1997-98 and its aftermath quickly shifted attention to and interest in concerns about currency crises and exchange rate movements in an era of rapid global capital flows. Given the high degree of economic openness in the region and its consequent importance of trade and investment, the Asian economies are especially susceptible to shifts in global capital flows and sharp exchange rate movements. While many Asian economies have taken a number of steps individually to fortify themselves against future external shocks, they have, as a group, simultaneously initiated a slow but steady process of enhancing monetary and financial cooperation. Since the region holds the largest reserves in the world and consequently plays a significant role in the global macroeconomic imbalances, Asian monetary and financial issues have clearly taken on global importance. The collection of chapters in this volume therefore attempts to explore various aspects of monetary, exchange rate and financial issues in Asia.

Preface and Introduction
Acknowledgements
PART I: EXCHANGE RATES AND MACROECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES
Managing the Liquidity Effects of Reserve Stockpiling in Emerging Asia; A.Ouyang & T.Willett
What is the Impact of Exchange Rate Changes on inflation in Asia?; A.Ghosh
A Closer Examination of Exchange Rate Pass-through in Korea and Thailand; A.Ghosh
PART II: IMPACT OF CURRENCY CRISIS AND MONETARY POLICY
Are Crisis-Induced Devaluations Contractionary? If So,Why? S.Chung-Hua
Financial Crisis, Capital Outflows and Monetary Policy Responses: Simple Analytics with Reference to East Asia
Understanding Currency Crisis and Monetary Policy Responses in Emerging Economies; M.Paraulkar
How to Manage New-Style Currency Crises?
Can High Reserves Offset Weak Fundamentals?; J.Li
PART III: MONETARY AND FINANCIAL COOPERATION IN ASIA
Examining the Case for a Regional Reserve Pool; R.Siregar & G.Bird
Taking Stock of Monetary and Financial Cooperation in Asia
Is there a Role for an Asian Currency Unit (ACU)?; V.Pontines

RAMKISHEN S. RAJAN is an Associate Professor at the School of Public Policy, George Mason University, USA, a position he has held since January 2006. Prior to that he was at the faculty of the School of Economics, University of Adelaide, Australia for five years, where he remains a Visiting Associate Professor.