From the Publisher : The currency crises that engulfed East Asian economies in 1997 and Mexico in 1994 - and their high development costs - raise a serious concern about the net benefits for developing countries of large flows of potentially reversible short-term international capital. Written by senior policy-makers and academics, the contributions to this volume examine in depth the macroeconomic and policy dilemmas confronting public authorities in the emerging economies as they deal with short-term capital movements, especially in the period before the outbreak of these crises. The studies, which are based on country data and comparative case studies of key emerging economies, provide numerous examples of the limits of price-based and administrative approaches for influencing both the level and the composition of capital inflows. These insights are also derived from contrasts between the East Asian, Latin American, African, and European experiences, between the financial and real effects of financial flows, and between private and public responsibilities in managing financial markets. The value of the chapters in this volume is that they analytically identify the weaknesses in both domestic and international capital market regimes as evident before the recent financial crises. The recommendations derived from this analysis apply to the development of financial markets in developing countries, the monitoring and regulation of mutual funds in source countries, and the future development of international capital markets. A study prepared for the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU/WIDER).