Experience of capital account liberalization in developed countries

Author: Agnes Beck
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-04-01
Features: In the late 1990s, the painful experience of the Asian financial crisis demonstrated that it is crucial to implement other supporting reforms and enhance regulation of the financial sector while advancing capital account liberalization. Only in this way can the stability and efficiency of capital markets be ensured, financial risks reduced to the lowest extent possible, and the greatest benefits achieved while opening up the domestic capital market. This book is part of the IMF's Occasional Papers series (No. 214). The IMF has long been concerned with the issue of capital market liberalization in developing and transition countries. For this purpose, they specifically engaged two senior economists from the Dutch Central Bank, who specialize in this research, to write this paper. It provides a detailed description and in-depth analysis of the capital control measures used by developed countries and their experiences in opening up capital accounts. It examines the capital control measures adopted by developed countries since the mid-20th century and their process of achieving capital account liberalization, summarizes the experiences and lessons learned from capital account liberalization over the decades in these countries, and explores to what extent these experiences and lessons are applicable to the current situation, providing valuable insights for developing and transition countries.