Brazil, China, India and Russia and other countries with emerging markets have become the darlings of international investors and the focus of enormous attention in academic, media and policy circles. Now, a new book co-authored by Cornell professor Eswar Prasad analyzes these economies and why they weathered the financial crisis so much more successfully than advanced countries.

In "Emerging Markets, Global Financial Crisis, Global Economics" (Brookings Press, 2010), Prasad, the Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and M. Ayhan Kose, assistant to the director of the International Monetary Fund's Research Department, assess the resilience of emerging market economies and explain why some countries have done better than others. The book draws lessons for the durability and sustainability of the long-term growth of these economies.

Emerging market economies have become a dominant presence in the world economy, now accounting for a substantial share of world output and a major driver of global growth during the past decade.

"They are significant players in international trade and financial flows and are beginning to exert rising clout in global policy debates," says Prasad. "However, the financial crisis of 2007-09 and the worldwide recession that followed cast a pall over the notion that emerging market economics had become self-reliant and decoupled from demand conditions in and financial flows from advanced countries."

The 205-page paperback is not only intended for scholars but also for anyone trying to anticipate the future growth of emerging markets or contemplating business opportunities in these economies.

The authors launched the book Dec. 3 at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., with a panel discussion on the changing nature of the global economy that also included several Brookings scholars and a special adviser to the IMF managing director.