Human Security and Managing Financial Crises: Can Human Security Be Effectively Managed?

摘要

Could the negative human security effects during the 1997 Financial Crisis in East Asia have been mitigated? To shed light on this question, we examine the reasons for the onset of the financial crisis, the internal and external factors, and the International Monetary Find's (IMF's) involvement/conditionality and how this affected the economies at the micro and macro level. The emphasis here is on the micro level, i.e. individuals and businesses. Our main conclusion is that one definite policy mishap was that IMF loans were in part not available immediately when needed, and were focused on servicing debt payments. Because of this, some businesses with full order books were unable to find the necessary working credits that could have helped them pull through the crisis, which in turn led to unnecessary bankruptcies.