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Revisiting the Revolving Door: Capital Flight from Southeast Asia

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  • Edsel L. Beja, Jr.

Abstract

The paper revisits hypothesized direct linkages between external borrowing and capital flight. It reviews the cases of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand to see if such linkages exist. The results indicate that, indeed, large sums of capital flowed in and out of these four countries in a revolving door process. Thus, the results lend support to the need for: better domestic management of external debt, sound macroeconomic management and solid macro-organizational foundations (with the government at the centre of policy making), active management of capital flows, and effective domestic and international involvement and coordination in capital flows.

Suggested Citation

  • Edsel L. Beja, Jr., 2006. "Revisiting the Revolving Door: Capital Flight from Southeast Asia," Working Papers 16, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    • Handle: RePEc:une:wpaper:16
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    File URL: http://www.un.org/esa/desa/papers/2006/wp16_2006.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Claessens, Stijn & Dooley, Michael P & Warner, Andrew, 1995. "Portfolio Capital Flows: Hot or Cold?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 9(1), pages 153-174, January.
    2. Carmen M. Reinhart & Graciela L. Kaminsky, 1999. "The Twin Crises: The Causes of Banking and Balance-of-Payments Problems," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(3), pages 473-500, June.
    3. Rock, Michael T. & Bonnett, Heidi, 2004. "The Comparative Politics of Corruption: Accounting for the East Asian Paradox in Empirical Studies of Corruption, Growth and Investment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 999-1017, June.
    4. Carmen M. Reinhart & Graciela L. Kaminsky, 1999. "The Twin Crises: The Causes of Banking and Balance-of-Payments Problems," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(3), pages 473-500, June.
    5. Edsel L. Beja, 2006. "Was Capital Fleeing Southeast Asia? Estimates from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand," Asia Pacific Business Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 261-283, July.
    6. H.M. Leung, 2003. "External debt and worsening business cycles in less developed countries," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 30(2), pages 155-168, May.
    7. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2004. "Serial Default and the "Paradox" of Rich-to-Poor Capital Flows," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(2), pages 53-58, May.
    8. Jane Harrigan & George Mavrotas & Zulkornain Yusop, 2002. "On The Determinants Of Capital Flight: A New Approach," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 203-241.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. NGUENA Christian-Lambert, 2014. "External Debt Origin, Capital Flight and Poverty Reduction in the Franc Zone: Does the Economic Consequences of Sino-African Relationship matter?," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 14/016, African Governance and Development Institute..
    2. Yingmei Zheng & Kam Tang, 2009. "Rethinking the measurement of capital flight: an application to Asian economies," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 313-330.
    3. Dong He & Lillian Cheung & Wenlang Zhang & Tommy Wu, 2012. "How would Capital Account Liberalization Affect China's Capital Flows and the Renminbi Real Exchange Rates?," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 20(6), pages 29-54, November.
    4. Umer Shahzad & Fengming Qin, 2019. "New Terrorism and Capital Flight: Pre and Post Nine Eleven analysis for Asia," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 20(1), pages 465-487, May.
    5. Nirmol Chandra Das & Mohammad Ashraful Ferdous Chowdhury & Md. Nazrul Islam, 2021. "Nonlinear Threshold Effects of Institutional Quality on Capital Flight: Insights From Bangladesh," International Journal of Asian Business and Information Management (IJABIM), IGI Global, vol. 12(1), pages 43-59, January.
    6. Edsel L. Beja, 2006. "Was Capital Fleeing Southeast Asia? Estimates from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand," Asia Pacific Business Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 261-283, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    capital flight; external debt; revolving door; Southeast Asia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F20 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - General
    • F30 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - General
    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries

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