had happened in Mexico. The only question was when, and so creditors were simply using short-
term lines of credit as a means of betting on the timing of the end of the Asian bubble.
Although this argument has some appeal, it does not stand up under close scrutiny.
Almost no one believed that Asia was headed for any kind of collapse, even as late as early 1997.
With the exception of some growing concerns about Thailand starting in mid-1996, investment
bank reports were all glowing in their praise, ratings agencies continued to give positive outlooks,
and the IMF and World Bank regularly lauded these countries with only a few modest suggestions
for reform. There simply were very few voices that argued that Asia was heading for any kind of
collapse. Scarcely a negative voice was heard until it was too late.6
The overriding sentiment
across Asia after the Mexican crisis was not Αthe IMF will bail us out too,≅ but rather Αit can=t
happen here.≅
Moral hazard, on the other hand, almost surely played a role in Russia. Investors clearly
had grave doubts about Russia=s medium-term stability. Risk premia on Russian securities were
very high. Investors talked openly about the risk of collapse, and about the safety net provided to
Russia by the IMF and (implicitly) the G-7. Russia was simply viewed as Αtoo big to fail.≅ The
indicators of moral hazard in the case of Russia simply underscore the lack of such phenomena in
the case of Asia.
A second moral hazard argument is that creditors felt secure that they would be repaid for
lending to specific projects that were controlled by companies with close connections to the
government. Akerlof and Romer (1996) show that a moral hazard crisis can develop when banks
are able to borrow funds on the basis of explicit or implicit public guarantees. When banks are
under-regulated, they may use the funds in very risky or even criminal ventures. Krugman (1998)
argued that the Asian crisis is a reflection of excess gambling and stealing by banks that gained
access to domestic and foreign deposits by virtue of state guarantees (although, as noted, he
subsequently changed his mind, and even criticized such views in later writing (Krugman, 1999)).
There is little question that many banks and firms expected government support to ensure
their profitability and their ability to repay their creditors. None of the chaebol in Korea had been
allowed to fail for at least a decade before Hanbo steel collapsed in early 1997. State-owned
banks, especially, believed they would always be bailed out. Firms owned by members of the
Suharto family in Indonesia and their close allies had every reason to expect special favors to
ensure continued profitability. Furthermore, there is little question that creditors knew this, and
were unlikely to impose stringent loan conditions on well-connected firms. However, it is
probably more accurate to say that these creditors expected these firms to continue to be
profitable and thus repay their loans, rather than that they expected a crash and a subsequent
bailout. Indeed, creditors often complained in Asia that weak bankruptcy laws made it nearly