Regional Economic Cooperation in Asia: A Feasibility Study

The process of regional economic cooperation among emerging Asian economies has gathered pace especially after the East Asian crisis. Although efforts at various levels are underway, it is important to know whether economies of the region behave synchronically. Thus, the paper attempts to examine business cycle convergence among the select emerging economies of the Asian region. It is found that the biggest economies of the emerging Asian region, viz. China and India are one of the least synchronized economies. Empirical analysis also indicates that export baskets are less similar than the import basket of the emerging Asian economies. These have implications for current efforts being pursued in the direction of monetary integration in the region.