Postscript to Financial Globalization and Economic Policies

The global financial crisis serves as a reminder of the risks of financial globalization. After grappling with surges of capital inflows earlier in this decade, many emerging market and developing economies experienced a sharp reversal of those inflows in late 2008 as a result of the crisis. Moreover, international financial linkages clearly served as a channel transmitting the financial turmoil from advanced countries to the shores of emerging markets. These developments will re-ignite the fierce debate about the merits of financial globalization and its effects on growth and stability, especially for emerging market and developing countries. As the crisis is still unfolding, it is premature to undertake a detailed analysis of its implications for the debate on financial globalization. Nevertheless, there are two preliminary observations that are pertinent. First, the differential effects of the crisis across countries confirm that it is not just financial openness, but a country's structural features and its precrisis policy choices that have determined the crisis' overall impact on a country. Second, the crisis has not led to a resurgence of capital controls in emerging market economies. Recent research further emphasizes the important role of the composition of capital inflows in determining the extent of pain caused by the crisis on nonfinancial firms