Keun Lee, Seoul National University: This paper analyzes the propagation of shocks originating in the United States and Japan into countries of emerging Asia (EA) in terms of five asset classes. It compares the scale and nature of spillovers during the 2008–09 global financial crisis (GFC), the 2013 “taper tantrum” (TT), and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. All three events have important and interesting implications for future economic management in Asia.
Although the paper applies a conventional statistical technique to analyze the three episodes of economic disruption, it would have been better if the paper had started with a priori hypotheses derived from some theoretical reasoning instead of neglecting it. The starting point for such hypothesizing could have been either of the following two considerations. First, this paper could have started by considering the possibility that different shocks would generate different patterns of spillover across these five types of assets. Second,...