In the last two decades we have seen both beneficial and deleterious effects of enhanced global financial and real integration. While the introduction of the Euro, the widening and deepening of the EU and the success of NAFTA are uncontested, there have also been significant episodes of crisis and contagion, such as the Asian, Brazilian and Russian crises, which have generated debate and diverse opinion. These events have stimulated an abundant literature on the measurement and econometric investigation of spillovers, contagion and integration. This special issue of the Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance addresses the issue of the real and financial aspects of financial integration. The papers are drawn from those presented at the 3rd INFINITI conference on International Financial Integration, held at the Institute for International Integration Studies in Trinity College Dublin in June 2005. The papers address a wide variety of issues, but fall into three categories.