Transpacific Rebalancing: Implications for Trade and Economic Growth

by Barry P. Bosworth (Editor), Masahiro Kawai (Editor)

Overview

"Persistently large external imbalances in the world economy contributed to the outbreak of the recent financial crisis. The current account imbalances were particularly severe among the economies that border on the Pacific—the United States ran large deficits, with offsetting surpluses in East Asia. The depth and breadth of the global recession also demonstrated the need for a coordination of national policies to achieve a sustained recovery.

While the magnitude of global-trade disruption led to some reduction in the size of the imbalances, closer examination suggests that the progress may prove temporary. On the other hand, significant changes in the underlying patterns of saving and investment suggest that some of the recent rebalancing may prove to be more permanent. Are such imbalances really a problem? If so, why and for whom? What should be done about them—if anything—and what does the future likely hold for transpacific trade relations? In this timely book, Asian and American economists explore those important questions.

Copublished with the Asian Development Bank Institute, Transpacific Rebalancing is coedited by Barry Bosworth—long one of the Brookings Institution's leading economic analysts—and Masahiro Kawai, dean of the ADBI. They brought together leading economists from either side of the Pacific to analyze such issues as:

• The impact of exchange rates

• The policy choices facing the "Asian tigers"

• The specifics and effects of trade imbalances in specific countries including the United States, South Korea, Thailand, India, and China

Contributors include Hwee Kwan Chow, Susan M. Collins, Barry Eichengreen, Joonkyung Ha, Yping Huang, Ginalyn Komoto, Jong-Wha Lee, Rajiv Kumar, Deunden Nikomborirak, Gisela Rua, Lea Sumulong, Chalongphob Sussankam, Kunyu Tao, Willem Thorbecke, and Pankaj Vashisht.

"

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815722601
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/20/2015
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.64(d)

About the Author

"Barry P. Bosworth is a senior fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings, where he holds the Robert V. Roosa Chair. His previous books include Productivity in the U.S. Services Sector: New Sources of Growth (Brookings), which he cowrote with Jack Triplett.Masahiro Kawai is project professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Tokyo. He was dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute from 2007 to 2014. Before this, he was special adviser to the ADB president in charge of regional economic cooperation and integration and professor of economics at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Social Science. Kawai served as chief economist for the World Bank's East Asia and the Pacific Region from 1998 to 2001, and as deputy vice minister of finance for international affairs of Japan's Ministry of Finance from 2001 to 2003."

Table of Contents

Preface vii

1 Overview of Issues, Challenges, and Policy Directions Barry P. Bosworth Masahiro Kawai 1

2 Exchange Rates and Global Rebalancing Barry Eichengreen Gisela Rua 26

3 The Effect of Exchange-Rate Changes on Transpacific Rebalancing Willem Thorbecke Ginalyn Komoto 60

4 Rebalancing the U.S. Economy in a Postcrisis World Barry P. Bosworth Susan M. Collins 84

5 Japan's Current Account Rebalancing Masahiro Kawai Shinji Takagi 119

6 The Role of Factor Market Distortion in the People's Republic of China's External Imbalances Yiping Huang Kunyu Tao 148

7 The Asian Tiger Economies' Choices Hwee Kwan Chow 183

8 ASEAN's Need to Rebalance: More Regional than Global? Iwan J. Azis Mario B. Lamberte 211

9 Crisis, Imbalances, and India Rajiv Kumar Pankaj Vashisht 231

Contributors 257

Index 259