This paper examines the macroeconomic policy management in South Korea during the Asian and global financial crises from a policy learning perspective. We argue that the lessons Korean officials drew from the Asian crisis were primarily negative, reflecting the harsh outcome of this crisis, and included economic restructuring as well as active crisis management adjustments. These restructurings have led to a more balanced liberalization of the Korean economy combined with better supervision on both financial and corporate markets. One of the major differences in active crisis management during the two crises pertains to use of monetary policy as a result of learning between the two. During the latter crisis Korean officials chose not to intervene on the exchange market and instead fully employed monetary policy to ease recession, in stark contrast to the contractive polices under IMF guidance during the Asian crisis
