GEGI Report on Managing Financial Globalization Launched
A new report from the Boston Univeristy Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI) on “Capital Account Liberalization in China” was released on October 3, 2014 at a standing-room only seminar held at the Fredereick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and organized jointly by the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, and the Center for Finance, Law & Policy.
The seminar, and the report, was led by Prof. Kevin Gallagher of the Pardee School of Global Studies, who also directs the Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI). The panel of speakers included Kevin P. Gallagher, Pardee School of Global Studies (GEGI Co-Director & one of the lead authors of the report); Bilge Erten, Northeastern University (Report author); and William Grimes, Pardee School of Global Studies and Director of Research at the BU Center for Finance, Law & Policy.
The report titled “Capital Account Liberalization in China: The Need for a Balanced Approach,” has been published by GEGI, in partnership with the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University, and the Institute for World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. This is the third in a series of Pardee Task Force Reports on “Managing Capital Flows for Long-Run Development.”
Prof. Kevin Gallagher of the Pardee School of Global Studies, the report’s co chair stressed that China needs to take a sequenced and gradual approach to opening up its financial system to foreign capital flows. He also spoke about the process by which this report was pulled together and the importance this particular issue has assumed because of recent events in China and beyond.
Prof. Bilge Erten, who has recently joined the faculty of economics at Northeastern University, shared the experiences of Latin American and Central and Eastern European countries, nations that opened up too quick and suffered with serious financial crises. Prof. William Grimes, also of the Pardee School of Global Studies, shared the experience of Japan, that over 40 years liberalized its financial system and never experienced a currency crisis.
The panels opening remarks were followed by a discussion amongst the panelists and with those attending. The event attracted a standing-room only audience.