"Financial globalization has increased dramatically over the past three decades, particularly different capital control regimes, as well as from a range of persistent factors, including different degrees of institutional quality and domestic financial development. While, in principle, financial globalization should enhance international risk sharing, reduce macroeconomic volatility, and foster economic growth, in practice its effects are less clear-cut. Countries gain or lose from financial integration depending on their domestic economic and institutional conditions. The results in this Occasional Paper are broadly supportive of an approach envisaging a gradual and orderly sequencing of external financial liberalization and emphasizing the desirability of complementary reforms in macroeconomic policy framework and the domestic financial system as essential components of a successful liberalization strategy" -- preface (v.)