Testing for contagion in ASEAN exchange rates Original Research Article

The Asian financial crisis in 1997 brought to the attention of member countries of the Association of South East Asian Countries (ASEAN-5) (comprising Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) the need for closer monetary co-operation. Central to the OCA literature is the nature and symmetry of underlying economic disturbances. If the economic disturbances are similar across the countries in a region, then the costs of establishing a common currency area are likely to be small. As the presence of contagion necessarily means there is an increase in the correlation of shocks experienced within a region, this paper examines the suitability of establishing a common currency area for ASEAN-5 from the perspective of contagion. In order to select the breakpoints for contagion endogenously, a modified sequential dummy variable method is developed. The empirical results show that contagion is present between all country pairs in ASEAN-5, which indicates that the degree of correlation among the ASEAN-5 economies has increased during the Asian financial crisis.