The key analytical question is when such a self-fulfilling panic can occur. In our view, the
main condition is a high level of short-term foreign liabilities relative to short-term foreign assets.
It is exactly in that situation that each creditor knows that it must flee a country ahead of other
creditors in the event of a withdrawal of foreign capital. Since the available short-term assets
can=t cover all of the short-term liabilities, each creditor knows that the last short-term creditors
to withdraw their funds will actually not be repaid on time (since the economy simply lacks the
liquid assets to pay off all creditors on short notice).
The evidence in favor of the panic interpretation in Asia is both indirect and direct. The
indirect evidence has two main parts. First, the crisis was unanticipated, suggesting that it can not
be easily explained by fundamentals. Almost no one who was closely watching Asia in the months
before the crisis, even those who were deeply familiar with Asia=s flaws, predicted an economic
meltdown. Second, even ex post, it is hard to find fundamental explanations commensurate with
the depth of the crisis. The problems that Asia=s critics now point to should have led to a growth
slowdown, or even a recession, not a deep contraction and implosion of both the banking and
corporate sectors.
The direct evidence has three main parts. First, the crisis hit only countries that were in a
vulnerable position, i.e. with high levels of short-term foreign debt relative to short-term foreign
assets. No emerging market with low levels of short-term debt relative to reserves was hit, even
those with high levels of corruption and weak banking systems. Second, the crisis hit several
countries with widely varying economic structures and fundamentals within a relatively short
period of time. Korea and Indonesia had relatively little in common at the time of the crisis,
except the levels of short-term debt and a common geographical region. Third, the crisis eased up
after about one year, even though several fundamental conditions (e.g., corporate and bank
financial health) were not significantly improved. The most striking example is Indonesia, where
the rupiah appreciated substantially between mid-July and the end of October, starting only weeks
after the chaos surrounding the resignation of Suharto. This can hardly be interpreted as a return
of investor confidence, since most investors are even more uncertain about Indonesia=s future in
the wake of Suharto=s downfall, and the ensuing political and social instability. The easing of the
crisis reflects, in our interpretation, the end of the short-term outflows of capital. As debts were
repaid, rescheduled, or defaulted upon, there was little foreign capital left to flee. As the net
capital outflows subsided, the intense pressure on the exchange rate ended, and the overshooting
caused by financial panic was reversed.
Exchange Rate Devaluation?
Some observers have attributed the recent crises to the devaluations of the Thai baht, the
Korean won, the Russian ruble, etc., and believe that there would have been no crises had these
countries simply maintained the pegged exchange rates. One variant holds that a currency board
arrangement, a la Argentina, would have saved these countries from the crisis. We believe that
this policy view is completely off the mark, and reflects the fallacy of post hoc, ergo propter hoc.
The sliver of truth in this view is that the deep recessions in Mexico (1995), Thailand
(1997), Korea (1997), and Russia (1998), indeed tended to follow closely after devaluations of
the exchange rate. On the other hand, Argentina (1995) and Hong Kong (1998) suffered severe
recessions despite their being on a currency board system. At the same time, there are many
countries that devalued their currencies without suffering a sharp crisis. Chile and India are two
recent examples among developing countries, and Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are
important examples among resource-rich developed countries that experienced terms of trade
declines in 1998. Thus, on the one hand, the currency board system did not save countries from
deep economic contraction, while on the other hand, many countries carried out devaluations or
allowed their currencies to depreciate without incurring financial panic.
What then explains the observed link between the timing of devaluations and the onset of
crisis? In our view, the devaluations have reflected two critical facts. First, in cases of Mexico,
Thailand, Korea, and Russia, they reflected the depletion of foreign exchange reserves. These
countries abandoned their currency pegs only when they had substantially run out of reserves.
Thus, as the devaluations occurred, these countries were in an exceedingly vulnerable financial
position, with very high levels of short-term debt in comparison with (depleted) foreign exchange
reserves. Second, the devaluations, though unavoidable once the reserves were deplected,
amounted to a broken promise. The Abroken promise@ therefore became a focal point for
financial panic.
In our perspective, it was the pegged exchange rates preceding the devaluation, rather
than the currency devaluations themselves, which should be considered the more important cause
of the crisis. When pegged rates become overvalued, the pegged rate system in effect forces
countries to deplete their foreign exchange reserves, in a vain defense of the currency peg. When
that ultimately happens, the countries are also forced to break their commitments on the exchange
rate, by devaluing the currency (or allowing it to depreciate). The combination of depleted
reserves plus the broken promises leaves the country very vulnerable to panic. With a floating
rate system, countries can maintain their foreign reserves and thereby maintain a defense against
financial panic. Foreign creditors see that the central bank keeps enough reserves to repay shortterm
debts, thereby eliminating the possibility of a self-fulfilling creditor panic. Also, governments
are not forced to break their word when international or domestic events for a change in market
exchange rates.
Some Policy Implications
First and foremost, the Asian crisis is a cautionary tale about rapid financial liberalization
in emerging markets. The Asian economies had gone far in creating a stable macroeconomic
environment and in liberalizing trade and investment regimes, at least for a wide range of tradable
manufactured goods. Most of their vulnerabilities in the mid-1990s arose as a result of rapid
financial liberalization undertaken in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Well-functioning financial
systems require a much stronger legal and regulatory infrastructure than do regimes for open
trade and foreign direct investment. In all of the more advanced industrialized economies,
financial transactions are heavily supervised and regulated to a much greater degree than trade
and investment transactions. Financial markets are far from being free and open, as is sometimes
supposed. The Asian economies simply had not developed sufficient capacity in managing a
market-based financial sector