16th Annual GW China Conference

Friday, April 26th, 2024,
Lindner Family Commons, 1957 E St NW

The Institute for International Economic Policy is pleased to announce the 16th Annual GW China Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations will take place on Friday, April 26th, 2024 at the Elliott School of International Affairs. This conference is co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the GW Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER). Breakfast, lunch, and light refreshments will be provided. Full agenda forthcoming.

GWU’s 15th Annual China Conference

Friday, April 7, 2023,
9:00 am – 4:15 pm ET
Lindner Family Commons, 1957 E St NW

The Institute for International Economic Policy is pleased to announce the 15th Annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations will take place on Friday, April 7th, 2023 at the Elliott School of International Affairs. This conference is co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the GW Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER). Breakfast, lunch, and light refreshments will be provided.

Conference Agenda:

8:30-9:00 a.m. – Breakfast and Registration

9:00-9:15 a.m. – Welcome Remarks

  • IIEP Director Remi Jedwab
  • Elliott School Dean Alyssa Ayres

9:15-10:00 a.m. – Keynote Address – “The Study of China’s Political Economy: Our Evolving Analytical Agenda”

  • Harry Harding (UVA, National Chengchi University, and Center for Asia Pacific Resilience and Innovation – CAPRi)

10:00-11:15 a.m. – Panel 1: The State and the Political System in China

  • Bruce Dickson (GWU)
  • Meg Rithmire (Harvard)
  • Yuhua Wang (Harvard)

11:15-11:30 a.m. – Coffee break

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. – Panel 2: Autocracy, Movement, and Development in Chinese History and Today

  • Yasheng Huang (MIT)
  • Suqin Ge (Virginia Tech)

12:30-1:30 p.m. – Lunch

1:30-2:45 p.m. – Panel 3: Trade War and a Race of Industrial Policy

  • Chad Bown (Peterson Institute)
  • Lee Branstetter (CMU)
  • Jennifer Hillman (Georgetown)

2:45-3:00 p.m. – Coffee break

3:00-4:15 p.m. – Panel 4: The Past, Present, and Future of U.S.-China Relations

  • Harry Harding (UVA, National Chengchi University, and Center for Asia Pacific Resilience and Innovation – CAPRi)
  • Michael Lampton (JHU)
  • David Shambaugh (GWU)

4:15 p.m. – Closing Remarks

 About the Keynote Speaker

Harry Harding is Yushan Scholar and University Chair Professor in the College of Social Science at National Cheng Chi University in Taiwan and University Professor Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Public Policy at the University of Virginia, where he is also a Faculty Senior Fellow at the Miller Center of Public Affairs. He has previously held visiting or adjunct appointments at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, the University of Washington, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Sydney, the University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and National Cheng Chi University.

Harding served as the founding dean of UVA’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy between 2009 and 2014. Before joining the Batten School, he held faculty appointments at Swarthmore College and Stanford University, founded the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and was a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. From 1995 to 2005 he was Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University, and from 2005 to 2007 was Director of Research and Analysis at Eurasia Group, a political risk advisory and consulting firm based in New York. He has served on the boards of several educational and non-profit institutions, as well as on the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Science and Technology and the U.S. Defense Policy Board.

Harding is the author of Organizing China: The Problem of Bureaucracy, 1949-1976; China’s Second Revolution: Reform After Mao; A Fragile Relationship: the United States and China Since 1972; and the chapter on the Cultural Revolution in The Cambridge History of China. He is also the editor or co-editor of China’s Foreign Relations in the 1980s; Sino-American Relations, 1945-1955: A Joint Reassessment of a Critical Decade; and The India-China Relationship: What the United States Needs to Know. He is presently writing a book on the history of the US-China relationship from the Clinton Administration to the Trump Administration, with the working title A Broken Engagement: the United States and China from Partners to Competitors.

Harding received his B.A. from Princeton and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford. He is an elected member of the Cosmos Club, The Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong; and the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House).

Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise

Friday, December 9th, 2022,
10:30 am – 12:00 pm EST
Zoom

This event will feature the chair of the 21st Century China Center at the University of California San Diego, Susan Shirk, to discuss her new book, “Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise.

For decades, China’s rise to power was characterized by its reassurance that this rise would be peaceful. Then, as Susan L. Shirk, shows in this sobering, clear-eyed account of China today, something changed.

For three decades after Mao’s death in 1976, China’s leaders adopted a restrained approach to foreign policy. They determined that any threat to their power, and that of the Chinese Communist Party, came not from abroad but from within—a conclusion cemented by the 1989 Tiananmen crisis. To facilitate the country’s inexorable economic ascendence, and to prevent a backlash, they reassured the outside world of China’s peaceful intentions.

Then, as Susan Shirk shows in this illuminating, disturbing, and utterly persuasive new book, something changed. China went from fragile superpower to global heavyweight, threatening Taiwan as well as its neighbors in the South China Sea, tightening its grip on Hong Kong, and openly challenging the United States for preeminence not just economically and technologically but militarily. China began to overreach. Combining her decades of research and experience, Shirk, one of the world’s most respected experts on Chinese politics, argues that we are now fully embroiled in a new cold war.

To explain what happened, Shirk pries open the “black box” of China’s political system and looks at what derailed its peaceful rise. As she shows, the shift toward confrontation began in the mid-2000s under the mild-mannered Hu Jintao, first among equals in a collective leadership. As China’s economy boomed, especially after the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, Hu and the other leaders lost restraint, abetting aggression toward the outside world and unchecked domestic social control. When Xi Jinping took power in 2012, he capitalized on widespread official corruption and open splits in the leadership to make the case for more concentrated power at the top. In the decade following, and to the present day—the eve of the 20th CCP Congress when he intends to claim a third term—he has accumulated greater power than any leader since Mao. Those who implement Xi’s directives compete to outdo one another, provoking an even greater global backlash and stoking jingoism within China on a scale not seen since the Cultural Revolution.

Here is a devastatingly lucid portrait of China today. Shirk’s extensive interviews and meticulous analysis reveal the dynamics driving overreach. To counter it, she argues, the worst mistake the rest of the world, and the United States in particular, can make is to overreact. Understanding the domestic roots of China’s actions will enable us to avoid the mistakes that could lead to war.

Speaker:

Susan Shirk is a research professor and chair of the 21st Century China Center. She is one of the most influential experts working on U.S.-China relations and Chinese politics. She is also director emeritus of the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC).

Susan Shirk first visited China in 1971 and has been teaching, researching and engaging China diplomatically ever since. From 1997-2000, Dr. Shirk served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, with responsibility for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia.

Dr. Huang has testified before U.S. congressional committees many times and regularly is consulted by major media outlets, the private sector, and governmental and nongovernmental organizations on global health issues and China. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and a board member of the Institute of Global Health (Georgia). In 2012, InsideJersey listed him as one of the “20 Brainiest People in New Jersey.” He previously was a research associate at the National Asia Research Program, a public intellectuals fellow at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, an associate fellow at the Asia Society, a visiting senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore, and a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has taught at Barnard College and Columbia University. He obtained his BA and MA from Fudan University and his PhD from the University of Chicago.

The CCP 20th Party Congress and China’s Road Ahead

Friday, 4th November, 2022

In Person Only

Critical questions about China’s future have swirled around the CCP’s 20th Party Congress: What will Xi Jinping’s third term mean for Chinese domestic politics? What are China’s intentions for Taiwan? How will the party manage slowing economic growth along with mounting demographic and environmental problems? The Sigur Center for Asian Studies will host a half-day congress where leading experts from GW’s distinguished China faculty and top scholars from other institutions seek to address these questions. The event was in person only and open to the general public. Brief presentations were followed by extended opportunities for Q&A with the audience.

 

Introductory Remarks: 12:30-12:45 PM

Gregg Brazinsky, Director Sigur Center for Asian Studies

 

Domestic Politics: 12:45-2:15 PM

Moderator: Gregg Brazinsky (GWU)

Panelists: Bruce Dickson (GWU), Iza Ding (University of Pittsburgh), Jeff Ding (GWU)

 

International Relations: 2:30-4:00 PM

Moderator: Deepa Ollapally (GWU)

Panelists: David Shambaugh (GWU), Patricia Kim (Brookings Institution), Robert Sutter (GWU)

 

Economic Policy: 4:15-5:45 PM

Moderator: Steven Suranovic (GWU)

Panelists: Maggie Chen (GWU), David Dollar (Brookings Institution), Stephen Kaplan (GWU)

The End of Growth and the Return of Ideology: Economics, Sustainability, and Technology in Xi Jinping’s China

Friday, 4th November, 2022

The Institute for International Economic Policy was pleased to invite you to the first event in the 15th annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations. This conference is co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the GW Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER).

This inaugural event featured the Director of China Programs and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, Scott M. Moore, to discuss The End of Growth and the Return of Ideology: Economics, Sustainability, and Technology in Xi Jinping’s China. John Helveston (GWU) provided discussant remarks, and IIEP Distinguished Visiting Scholar Barbara Stallings moderated the event.

If the COVID-19 pandemic taught us anything, it is that the world is bound together by shared challenges—and that at the center of those challenges stands China. Thanks to decades of breakneck growth and development, Chinese officials, businesses, and institutions now play a critical role in every major global issue, from climate change to biotechnology. But China’s recent 20th Party Congress shows that Xi Jinping’s China is charting a very different path toward addressing these issues, all in the context of slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

This talk drew on a recently-published book, China’s Next Act: How Sustainability and Technology are Reshaping China’s Rise and the World’s Future, to re-envision China’s role in the world in terms of sustainability and technology. This reframing is essential both because none of these increasingly pressing, shared global challenges can be tackled without China, and because they are reshaping China’s economy and its foreign policy, with major implications for the world at large. At the same time, sustainability and technology issues present opportunities for intensified economic, geopolitical, and ideological competition—a reality that Beijing recognizes.

Drawing on the book, this talk explains that the danger is that China’s next act will drive divergence on the rules and standards the world desperately needs to tackle shared challenges in the decades ahead. In some areas, like clean technology development, competition can be good for the planet. But in others, it could be catastrophic: only cooperation can lower the risks of artificial intelligence and other disruptive new technologies.

With a particular focus on climate change, this talk addressed China’s role in providing global public goods and addressing global challenges, against a backdrop of growing economic, geopolitical, and ideological rivalry with other powers.

 

Speakers:

Scott M. Moore is a political scientist, university administrator, and former policymaker whose career focuses on China, sustainability, and emerging technology. As Director of China Programs and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, Scott Moore works with faculty members from across the University to design, implement, and highlight innovative, high-impact global research initiatives in areas including sustainability and emerging technology. Dr. Moore directs Penn Global’s four research and engagement fund programs, including those designed to support faculty-led projects in China, India, and Africa as well as its At-Risk Scholars Program. In addition, Dr. Moore conducts research as an affiliate of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China and The Water Center at Penn, and teaches in the Department of Political Science.

 

Discussant:

 

John Helveston is interested in understanding the factors that shape technological change, with a particular focus on transitioning to more sustainable and energy-saving technologies. Within this broader category, he studies consumer preferences and market demand for new technologies as well as relationships between innovation, industry structure, and technology policy. He has explored these themes in the context of China’s rapidly developing electric vehicle industry. He applies an interdisciplinary approach to research, with expertise in discrete choice modeling and conjoint analysis as well as interview-based case studies.

 

 

Moderator:

photo of Barbara StallingsBarbara Stallings is a William R. Rhodes Research Professor at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University and editor of Studies in Comparative International Development. She is also a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Institute for International Economic Policy at George Washington University. Before arriving at Brown in 2002, she was director of the Economic Development Division of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago, Chile (1993–2002), and professor of political economy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1977–1993). She has doctorates in economics (University of Cambridge) and in political science (Stanford University) and is a specialist in development economics, with an emphasis on development strategies and international finance. In addition, she works on issues of economic relations between Asia and Latin America and comparisons between the two regions. Her recent books are Innovation and Inclusion in Latin America: Strategies to Avoid the Middle Income Trap (2016) and Promoting Development: The Political Economy of East Asian Foreign Aid (2017). Her most recent book, Dependency in the Twenty-First Century?: The Political Economy of China-Latin America Relations (2020), was selected as one of Foreign Affairs’ best books of 2020. She has taught at various universities in China and elsewhere in Asia; currently she is a distinguished visiting professor at the Schwarzman Program at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

China’s Irreconcilable Choices on Ukraine

Friday, April 22, 2022,

11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. ET

Lindner Family Commons (in-person) and via Zoom

At this event Evan Feigenbaum will discuss how China bridges the geo-economic and geo-political terrain in its response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. How does China manage its relationships with the U.S. and Russia? How do they triangulate? How can China simultaneously be an ally to Russia and a stakeholder in the global system? Immediately following his keynote remarks, we’ll hear from discussants from the economic angle and the Eurasian/Russian angle to flesh out other viewpoints and highlight tricky issues. The event will conclude with a robust audience Q&A.

Speaker

Evan A. Feigenbaum is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he oversees research in Washington, Beijing, and New Delhi on a dynamic region encompassing both East Asia and South Asia. He was also the 2019-20 James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, where he is now a practitioner senior fellow. Initially an academic with a PhD in Chinese politics from Stanford University, Feigenbaum’s career has spanned government service, think tanks, the private sector, and three major regions of Asia. He is the author of three books and monographs, including The United States in the New Asia (CFR, 2009, co-author) and China’s Techno-Warriors: National Security and Strategic Competition from the Nuclear to the Information Age (Stanford University Press, 2003), which was selected by Foreign Affairs as a best book of 2003 on the Asia-Pacific, as well as numerous articles and essays.

Discussants

Michael Moore received his B.A. in liberal arts from the University of Texas at Austin and his M.S. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is Director of the Masters of Arts in International Economic Policy program and has been a faculty member at the Elliott School since receiving his doctorate in 1988. Professor Moore teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in international trade theory and policy as well as international macroeconomics. He also has taught international economics to US diplomats at the Foreign Service Institute and students at the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (Sciences-Po) in Paris. He has published in numerous academic journals including the Journal of International Economics, International Trade Journal, Canadian Journal of Economics, Review of International Economics, European Journal of Political Economy, and Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, and has been a contributor to five books. His commentary has appeared in numerous media outlets, including The Washington PostThe Financial Times, CNN, CBC, NPR, and NBC.

 

This event is part of our China conference series and is cosponsored by the Sigur Center and GW-CIBER.

U.S.-China Tension

Friday, April 1, 2022

9:30 a.m
via Zoom

The Institute for International Economic Policy was pleased to invite you to the 14th annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations. This year, the conference takes place as a virtual series. This conference is co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the GW Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER).

Since 1949, US–China relations have evolved from tense standoffs to a complex mix of intensifying diplomacy, growing international rivalry, and increasingly intertwined economies. Continued escalation of trade disputes and blame over the spread of the coronavirus are emblematic of a significant hardening of positions that extends well beyond these two issues. The importance of US–China tension in shaping either macroeconomic outcomes or firm-level decisions over a long time span has not been studied empirically, mainly for lack of an indicator that can quantify these tensions. The paper that will be discussed measures the intensity of public concerns over US–China tension and shows that there are adverse economic consequences for both countries due to heightened tensions.

About the Speaker:

Picture of Bo SunBo Sun is a Principal Economist at the Federal Reserve Board. She currently serves as an associated editor of the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking. She served on the faculty at Guanghua School of Management of Peking University from 2011 to 2014, and taught courses in corporate finance at undergraduate, Masters, MBA, and Ph.D. levels. Her research interests include finance and macroeconomics, with a particular focus on information frictions. Her research has been published in leading academic journals, including the American Economic Review, Journal of Monetary Economics, International Economic Review, Journal of Economic Literature, and American Economic Journal: Microeconomics. Her research has also been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, Brookings, Chicago Booth Review, and Deutsche Bank Research, among other outlets. She was a visiting scholar at the Bank of Canada, Bank of England, World Bank, and Carnegie Mellon University. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Virginia and B.A. in Finance from Peking University.

Mary Lovely (Syracuse and PIIE) will discuss.

The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping’s China

Tuesday, March 22 | 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm ET
Format: Hybrid In Person and Virtual Event
In person: Elliott School of International Affairs
The Lindner Family Commons,
Room 602
1957 E St NW, Washington DC 20052
Virtual: via Zoom

We were pleased to invite you to a joint Elliott School Book Launch Series and IIEP Policy Forum at GW featuring Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia and current President and CEO of the Asia Society, on his new book, The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping’s China. Elliott School Dean Alyssa Ayres provided welcome remarks. Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, International Affairs, and Political Science David Shambaugh engaged with the Hon. Kevin Rudd in conversation, and there was a lengthy moderated Q&A. Books were available for purchase and signing after the end of the event.

About The Speaker

Kevin Rudd is a former Prime Minister of Australia and current President and CEO of the Asia Society. He became President and CEO of Asia Society in January 2021 and has been president of the Asia Society Policy Institute since January 2015. He served as Australia’s 26th Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, then as Foreign Minister from 2010 to 2012, before returning as Prime Minister in 2013. He is also a leading international authority on China. He began his career as a China scholar, serving as an Australian diplomat in Beijing before entering Australian politics.

 

 

 

 

About The Moderator

David Shambaugh is an internationally recognized authority and award-winning author on contemporary China and the international relations of Asia. He currently is the Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science & International Affairs, and the founding Director of the China Policy Program in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He was also a formerly a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at The Brookings Institution and Director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

 

 

Introductory Remarks

Picture of Alyssa AyresAlyssa Ayres is the Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Her work focuses primarily on India’s role in the world and on U.S. relations with South Asia in the larger Indo-Pacific. Before joining the Elliott School, she was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia under the Obama administration. She holds a Ph.D. in South Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago.

Looking for Balanced Growth in China: Insights from the latest IMF Staff report

Friday, March 4th, 2022
9:30 – 11:00 a.m. ET
via Zoom

The Institute for International Economic Policy was pleased to invite you to the fourth event in the 14th annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations. This year, the conference will take place as a virtual series. This conference is co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the GW Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER).

China’s recovery is well advanced—but it lacks balance and momentum has slowed, reflecting the rapid withdrawal of fiscal support, lagging consumption amid recurrent COVID-19 outbreaks despite a successful vaccination campaign, and slowing real estate investment following policy efforts to reduce leverage in the property sector. Regulatory measures targeting the technology sector, intended to enhance competition, consumer privacy, and data governance, have increased policy uncertainty. China’s climate strategy has begun to take shape with the release of detailed action plans. Productivity growth is declining as decoupling pressures are increasing, while a stalling of key structural reforms and rebalancing are delaying the transition to “high-quality”—balanced, inclusive and green—growth.

China rebounded strongly from the pandemic, but growth is losing momentum while remaining overly dependent on support from investment and exports. This imperils the nation’s long-sought transition to sustained high-quality growth that’s balanced, inclusive and green.

While China’s many challenges have no easy answer, the key message of the IMF’s annual Article IV review of the economy is that rebalancing toward a more consumption-based model will boost growth prospects in the short term and deliver high-quality expansion in the long run. Importantly, it will also help bring the country closer to achieving its climate goal of carbon neutrality before 2060.

About the Speakers:

Picture of Helge BergerHelge Berger is an Assistant Director in the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department. He is also an adjunct professor of monetary economics at Free University of Berlin. He was educated in Munich, Germany, where he received his Ph.D. and the venia legendi for economics. Previously, he taught at Princeton University as a John Foster Dulles Visiting Lecturer, helped to coordinate the Munich-based CESifo network as its research director, and served as full professor (tenured) at Free University Berlin. At the IMF, he has worked in the Research and European Departments.

 

Picture of Wenjie ChenWenjie Chen is a senior economist on the IMF’s China team. Prior to that, she worked in the Research Department, where she was part of the World Economic Outlook team. She has also worked in the African Department on South Africa and South Sudan. Before joining the IMF, Wenjie worked as a professor at George Washington University School of Business and Elliott School of International Affairs. She received her MA and PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan.

 

About the Discussant:

Picture of Chao WeiChao Wei is an associate professor of economics at the George Washington University who previously taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was the 2010-2011 Economic Policy Fellow at the Congressional Budget Office. Her primary research areas are: Macroeconomics, Labor Economics, Financial Economics, China Economy, and Energy and Environmental Economics. She has published papers, including at the top journal of the economics field, on the impact of energy price shocks on the stock market, the effect of personal and corporate income taxes on asset returns, and the endogenous determination of gasoline use and vehicle fuel efficiency. Her recent research focuses on the relationship between family structure and parental human capital investment, marital and labor supply behaviors of older adults, and the trade-off between stimulus and environmental objectives in the green stimulus programs. She holds degrees from Fudan University (BA), Columbia University (M.A.) and Stanford University (Ph.D.).

About the Moderator:

Picture of Jay ShambaughJay Shambaugh is Professor of Economics and International Affairs, and Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. His area of research is macroeconomics and international economics. He has had two stints in public service. He served as a Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisors from 2015-2017. Earlier, he served on the staff of the CEA as a Senior Economist for International Economics and then as the Chief Economist. He also spent 3 years as the Director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution. Jay is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER and Non-Resident Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings. Prior to joining the faculty at George Washington, Jay taught at Georgetown and Dartmouth and was a visiting scholar at the IMF. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.A. from the Fletcher School at Tufts, and a B.A. from Yale University.

14th Annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Relations

Virtual Conference Series

Beginning October 15, 2021

via Webex

Schedule of Events

Friday, October 15, 2021: Did U.S. Politicians Expect the China Shock?

Moderator: Maggie Chen

Dr. Bingjing Li (University of Hong Kong)

James Feigenbaum (Boston University)

Friday, November 5, 2021: One Currency, Two Markets: China’s Attempt to Internationalize the Renminbi

Moderator: Barbara Stallings

Edwin Lai (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

Masahiro Kawai (University of Tokyo and ERINA)

Friday, November 19, 2021: How is the Roll Out of Digital RMB Changing the Financial System in China and Abroad?

Jun Qian (Fudan University)

Martin Chorzempa (Peterson Institute for International Economics)

Friday, March 4th, 2022: Looking for Balanced Growth in China: Insights from the latest IMF Staff report

                              Moderator: Jay Shambaugh

                              Helge Berger (IMF)

                              Wenjie Chen (IMF)

Friday, April 1, 2022: U.S.-China Tension

Bo Sun (Federal Reserve Board)

Friday, April 22, 2022: China’s rebranding campaign during the Covid-19 pandemic: How successful is it?

                              Yanzhong Huang (Council on Foreign Relations)

                              Zoë McLaren (University of Maryland, Baltimore County)

                              Joan Kaufman (Harvard Medical School)

Friday, April 22, 2022: China’s Irreconcilable Choices on Ukraine

                             Evan A. Feigenbaum (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)

                             Michael Moore (George Washington University)

An archive of all previous Annual Conferences on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations is available here.

For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.

Cosponsored by:

Did U.S. Politicians Expect the China Shock?

Friday, October 15th, 2021
9:30 a.m. – 11 a.m. EDT
via Zoom

 

The Institute for International Economic Policy was pleased to invite you to the 14th annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations. This year, the conference takes place as a virtual series. This conference is co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the GW Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER).

In the two decades straddling China’s WTO accession, the China Shock, i.e. the rapid trade integration of China in the early 2000’s, has had a profound economic impact across U.S. regions. It is now both an internationally litigated issue and the casus belli for a global trade war. Were its consequences unexpected? Did U.S. politicians have imperfect information about the extent of China Shock’s repercussions in their district at the time when they voted on China’s Normal Trade Relations status? Or did they have accurate expectations, yet placed a relatively low weight on the subconstituencies that ended up being adversely affected?

In this inaugural event, HKU’s Bingjing Li discussed how information sets, expectations, and preferences of U.S. politicians are fundamental, but unobserved determinants of their policy choices in regards to the China Shock. Prof. Li applies a moment inequality approach designed to deliver unbiased estimates under weak informational assumptions on the information sets of members of Congress. Employing repeated roll call votes in the U.S. House of Representatives on China’s Normal Trade Relations status, she formally tests what information politicians had at the time of their decision and consistently estimates the weights that constituent interests, ideology, and other factors had in congressional votes. She will show how assuming perfect foresight of the shocks biases the role of constituent interests and how standard proxies to modeling politician’s expectations bias the estimation. She cannot reject that politicians could predict the initial China Shock in the early 1990’s, but not around 2000, when China started entering new sectors, and find a moderate role of constituent interests, compared to ideology. Overall, she will show how U.S. legislators appeared to have had accurate information on the China Shock, but did not place substantial weight on its adverse consequences.

Boston University’s James Feigenbaum served as a discussant and IIEP’s Maggie Chen moderated with an introduction from IIEP Director Jay Shambaugh.

About the Speaker:

Picture of Bingjing LiDr. Bingjing Li is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Hong Kong. Her main research fields are international trade and applied microeconomics. Using both micro data and quantitative models, her works focus on understanding the interactions of international trade with development and political economy factors, and their consequences.

 

 

About the Discussant:

Picture of James FeigenbaumJames Feigenbaum is an Assistant Professor in the Boston University Department of Economics. He is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER in the Development of the American Economy program and a Junior Faculty Fellow at BU’s Hariri Institute for Computing. James studies economic history, labor economics, and political economy. His research interests include understanding the effects of economic shocks on politics and politicians. Prof. Feigenbaum received his PhD in Economics from Harvard University and his B.A. with High Honors in Economics and Mathematics from Wesleyan University.

About the Moderator:

Picture of Maggie ChenMaggie Chen is Professor of Economics and International Affairs at George Washington University. She has served as Director of GW’s Institute for International Economic Policy and worked as an economist in the research department of the World Bank and a consultant for the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the U.S. Congressional Budget Office. Professor Chen’s research areas include multinational firms, international trade, and regional trade agreements. Her work has been published in academic journals such as the Review of Economics and Statistics, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of International Economics, and Journal of Development Economics. She is a co-editor of Economic Inquiry and an associate editor of Economic Modeling.

Introduction by:

Picture of Jay ShambaughJay Shambaugh is Professor of Economics and International Affairs, and Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. His area of research is macroeconomics and international economics. He has had two stints in public service. He served as a Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisors from 2015-2017. Earlier, he served on the staff of the CEA as a Senior Economist for International Economics and then as the Chief Economist. He also spent 3 years as the Director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution. Jay is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER and Non-Resident Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings. Prior to joining the faculty at George Washington, Jay taught at Georgetown and Dartmouth and was a visiting scholar at the IMF. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.A. from the Fletcher School at Tufts, and a B.A. from Yale University.

China Conference Sponsors

One Currency, Two Markets: China’s Attempt to Internationalize the Renminbi

Friday, November 5th, 2021
9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. EDT
via Zoom

This was the second event in the 14th annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations. This year, the conference takes place as a virtual series. This conference is co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the GW Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER).

This event featured HKU’s Edwin Lai to discuss his recent book titled “One Currency, Two Markets: China’s Attempt to Internationalize the Renminbi.” The Economic Research Institute for Northeast Asia (ERINA) Representative Director Dr. Masahiro Kawai provided discussant remarks. In this book, Edwin Lai discusses economic analysis of the future of the international monetary system and the USD, and the rising importance of the RMB. He points out the unsustainability of the dollar standard in the long run, that China has unique incentives to internationalize its currency, and how Hong Kong plays an important role. He explains the real reasons for China to internationalize its currency, including using external commitments to force financial sector reforms (‘daobi’ in Chinese). His book applies economic theories accessible to laymen to establish that financial development and openness are crucial for RMB internationalization to succeed, and that greater exchange rate volatility is inevitable due to the ‘open-economy trilemma’. Employing the ‘gravity model’, the book predicts quantitatively that the RMB is likely to be a distant third payment currency after the USD and the euro, but surpassing the Japanese yen in the next decade.

IIEP Director Jay Shambaugh and Elliott School Vice Dean James Foster provided welcome and introductory remarks. Barbara Stallings moderated the event. James Foster introducde Edwin Lai and Barbara Stallings introduced Dr. Masahiro Kawai.

About the Speaker:

Picture of Edwin LaiEdwin Lai is Professor of Economics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology since July 2009, and later jointly appointed as the Director of the Center for Economic Development and jointly appointed as Professor in the Division of Public Policy. He was Senior Research Economist and Adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas of the Federal Reserve System of the USA, from August 2007 to June 2009. Before that he was Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University, Associate Professor at City University of Hong Kong and Associate Professor at Singapore Management University. His main research areas are international economics, industrial organization, growth and internationalization of renminbi. He is a leading scholar in the study of intellectual property rights in the global economy. He has published in American Economic Review, RAND Journal of Economics, International Economic Review, Journal of International Economics and other highly respected journals in economics.

Prof. Lai has been a consultant to the World Bank, visiting scholar/fellow with Boston University, Princeton University, Kobe University, CESifo (University of Munich), Hitotsubashi University, and Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research. He is Associate Editor of Review of International Economics (Wiley Publisher), a Fellow of the CESifo Research Network (U of Munich), and a board member of Asia-Pacific Trade Seminars (APTS) Group. He obtained his B.Sc. in engineering from the University of Hong Kong of Science and Technology and A.M. and Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University.

About the Discussant:

Picture of Masahiro KawaiDr. Masahiro Kawai is the Representative Director of the Economic Research Institute for Northeast Asia (ERINA) in Niigata, Japan. While teaching Asian finance at the University of Tokyo as Professor Emeritus, he also serves as a Councilor of the Bank of Japan, a Senior Fellow of the Policy Research Institute of Japan’s Finance Ministry, and a Distinguished Research Fellow of the Japan Forum on International Relations. Dr. Kawai has published numerous books and articles on open-economy macroeconomics, economic and financial globalization, regional economic integration in Asia, and the international monetary system. He co-edited a book with Barry Eichengreen, entitled Renminbi Internationalization: Achievements, Prospects, and Challenges (Brookings Institution Press, 2015).

Previously, Dr. Kawai held positions as: Dean of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Institute; Special Advisor to the ADB President in charge of regional economic cooperation and integration; Deputy Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs and President of the Policy Research Institute of Japan’s Ministry of Finance; Chief Economist for the World Bank’s East Asia and the Pacific Region; a Professor of Economics at the University of Tokyo and an Associate Professor of Economics at The Johns Hopkins University; and a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

He graduated with his B.A. degree in Economics from the University of Tokyo’s Economics Department. He earned his M.S. degree in Statistics and Ph.D. degree in Economics from Stanford University.

About the Moderator:

Picture of Barbara StallingsBarbara Stallings is William R. Rhodes Research Professor at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University and editor of Studies in Comparative International Development. She is also a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Institute for International Economic Policy at George Washington University. Before arriving at Brown in 2002, she was director of the Economic Development Division of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago, Chile (1993–2002), and professor of political economy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1977–1993). She has doctorates in economics (University of Cambridge) and in political science (Stanford University) and is a specialist in development economics, with an emphasis on development strategies and international finance. In addition, she works on issues of economic relations between Asia and Latin America and comparisons between the two regions. Her recent books are Innovation and Inclusion in Latin America: Strategies to Avoid the Middle Income Trap (2016) and Promoting Development: The Political Economy of East Asian Foreign Aid (2017). Her most recent book, Dependency in the Twenty-First Century?: The Political Economy of China-Latin America Relations (2020), was selected as one of Foreign Affairs’ best books of 2020. She has taught at various universities in China and elsewhere in Asia; currently she is a distinguished visiting professor at the Schwarzman Program at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Welcome and Introductory Remarks:

Picture of Jay ShambaughJay Shambaugh is Professor of Economics and International Affairs, and Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. His area of research is macroeconomics and international economics. He has had two stints in public service. He served as a Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisors from 2015-2017. Earlier, he served on the staff of the CEA as a Senior Economist for International Economics and then as the Chief Economist. He also spent 3 years as the Director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution. Jay is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER and Non-Resident Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings. Prior to joining the faculty at George Washington, Jay taught at Georgetown and Dartmouth and was a visiting scholar at the IMF. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.A. from the Fletcher School at Tufts, and a B.A. from Yale University.

Picture of James FosterJames E. Foster is the Oliver T. Carr, Jr. Professor of International Affairs, Professor of Economics, and Vice Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs. He is also a Research Associate at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative at Oxford University. Professor Foster’s research focuses on welfare economics — using economic tools to evaluate and enhance the wellbeing of people. His work underlies many well-known social indices including the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) published annually by the UNDP in the Human Development Report, dozens of national MPIs used to guide domestic policy against poverty, the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) at USAID, the Gross National Happiness Index of Bhutan, the Better Jobs Index of the InterAmerican Development Bank, and the Statistical Performance Index of the World Bank. Prof. Foster received his PhD in Economics from Cornell University and has a Doctorate Honoris Causa from Universidad Autonoma del Estado Hidalgo (Mexico).

Globalizing Patient Capital: The Political Economy of Chinese Finance in the Americas

Friday, April 30, 2021
9 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. EDT
via Zoom

The Institute for International Economic Policy and the GW Elliott School of International Affairs Book Launch Series was pleased to invite you to a book launch discussion of Prof. Stephen B. Kaplan’s Globalizing Patient Capital: The Political Economy of Chinese Finance in the Americas (Cambridge University Press).

China’s overseas financing is a distinct form of “patient capital” that marshals the country’s vast domestic resources to create commercial opportunities internationally. Its long-term risk tolerance and lack of policy conditionality has allowed developing economies to sidestep the fiscal austerity tendencies of Western markets and multilaterals. Professor Stephen B. Kaplan will discuss his new book, Globalizing Patient Capital: The Political Economy of Chinese Finance in the Americas, which examines China’s state-led capitalism, and the costs and benefits of state versus market approaches to development. In the talk, Professor Kaplan explores how patient capital affects national-level governance across the Americas and beyond, including how Chinese leaders might react to developing nation’s ongoing struggles with debt and dependency.

The book launch was also part of our 13th annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations. The conference took place as a virtual series. This conference was co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, the GW Center for International Business Education and Research, the Latin American & Hemispheric Studies Program (LAHSP) at GW, the GW Department of Political Science, and the Elliott School Book Launch Series.

Meet the Speaker:

Stephen Kaplan is an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs. Professor Kaplan’s research and teaching interests focus on the frontiers of international and comparative political economy, where he specializes in the political economy of global finance and development, the rise of China in the Western Hemisphere, and Latin American politics.

Professor Kaplan joined the GWU faculty in the fall of 2010 after completing a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University and his Ph.D at Yale University. While at Yale, Kaplan also worked as a researcher for former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo at the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. Prior to his doctoral studies, Professor Kaplan was a senior economic analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, writing extensively on developing country economics, global financial market developments, and emerging market crises from 1998 to 2003.

Meet the Discussants:

Picture of Carol WiseProfessor Carol Wise, Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Southern California (USC), has written widely on trade integration, exchange rate crises, institutional reform, and the political economy of market restructuring in the Latin American region. Wise is author of the book, Dragonomics: How Latin America is Maximizing (or Missing Out) on China’s International Development Strategy (Yale University Press, 2020), which received USC’s Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Recognition Award in 2021 and the Luciano Tomassini 2021 Award-Honorable Mention for the Best Book on International Relations from the Latin American Studies Association. Professor Wise’s most recent journal articles include: “Playing both Sides of the Pacific: Latin America’s Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with China,” Pacific Affairs (2016); “Conceptualizing China-Latin America Relations in the 21 st Century” (with Victoria Chonn Ching), The Pacific Review (2017); and, “International Trade Norms in the Age of Covid-19” (with Nicolas Albertoni), Fudan Humanities and Social Science Journal (2020). Professor Wise has held Fulbright Grants to Canada, Mexico, and Peru. She is a member of the core social science faculty at Renmin University’s annual International Summer Program, Beijing. In 2019, Wise was the Fulbright-Masaryk University Distinguished Chair in the Czech Republic. Her latest research compares the political economy of development in Latin America and Central/Eastern Europe.

Picture of Roselyn HsuehRoselyn Hsueh is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Temple University in Philadelphia, where she codirects the Certificate in Political Economy. She is the recipient of the Fulbright Global Scholar Award for research in India, Mexico, and Russia. Her next book, Micro-Institutional Foundations of Capitalism: Sectoral Pathways to Globalization in China, India, and Russia, is under contract with Cambridge University Press. She is the author of China’s Regulatory State: A New Strategy for Globalization (Cornell, 2011), and scholarly articles and book chapters. BBC World News, The Economist, Foreign Affairs, National Public Radio, The Washington Post, and other media outlets have featured her research. She has testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission and consulted for The Center for Strategic and International Studies. Dr. Hsueh has served as a Global Order Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, member of the Georgetown Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues, and Residential Research Faculty Fellow at U.C. Berkeley. She also lectured as a Visiting Professor at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico. She held the Hayward R. Alker Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Southern California and conducted international fieldwork in China, Japan, and Taiwan as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar and David L. Boren National Security Fellow. She earned her B.A. and doctorate in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Meet the Moderator: 

Jay Shambaugh is Professor of Economics and  International Affairs, and Co- Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. His area of research is macroeconomics and international economics. He has had two stints in public service. He served as a Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisors from 2015-2017. Earlier, he served on the staff of the CEA as a Senior Economist for International Economics and then as the Chief Economist. He also spent 3 years as the Director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution. Jay is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER and Non-Resident Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings. Prior to joining the faculty at George Washington, Jay taught at Georgetown and Dartmouth and was a visiting scholar at the IMF. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.A. from the Fletcher School at Tufts, and a B.A. from Yale University.

Minimum Performance Targets, Multitasking and Incentives: Theory and Evidence from China’s Air Quality Controls

Friday, April 9, 2021
9:30 a.m.-11 a.m. EDT
via Zoom

The Institute for International Economic Policy is pleased to invite you to the 13th annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations. This year, the conference will take place as a virtual series. This conference is co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the GW Center for International Business Education and Research.

As the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, China has launched serious efforts to tighten its environmental regulation and curb air pollution in the past decade. A distinctive feature of Beijing’s approach is the critical role played by local governments in complying with central directives. China’s local officials are currently facing the dual tasks of pursuing local economic development and curbing air pollution, which are potentially conflicting with each other. To resolve this multitasking challenge, China has recently introduced minimum targets for air quality controls to discipline local officials while continuing to link their promotion prospects to local economic performance (such as GDP growth).

In the event, Peking University’s Li-An Zhou discussed how local Chinese officials respond strategically to minimum air quality control targets when they care more about pursuing regional economic development, which is closely linked to their career prospects. Using a novel prefecture-day-level dataset on air quality, Zhou finds strong evidence that air quality tends to improve when the air quality target is doomed to fail, but deteriorates significantly after the early fulfillment of the target is guaranteed. These “asymmetric” strategic responses are mainly driven by “outsiders” – local officials with no previous exposure to the regions to which they are assigned. Greater pressure to promote local economic development reinforces outsiders’ asymmetric responses. For “non-outsiders” who have been promoted from the local area and who are more likely to intrinsically value the local environment, air quality performance is stable in both cases of target fulfillment. The study sheds light on how minimum air quality targets have worked in China’s context and highlights the role of intrinsic motivations in mitigating strategic responses to minimum performance targets in a multitasking environment.

JHU’s Matthew Kahn served as a discussant and IIEP Co-Director Jay Shambaugh served as a moderator, with a brief introduction from IIEP’s Chao Wei.

Co-sponsors:
Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the GW Center for International Business Education and Research.

Meet the Speakers: 

Li-An Zhou Li-An Zhou is is Professor of Economics and Associate Dean of Guanghua School of
Management at Peking University. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Stanford
University. His research interests include political economy, industrial organization,
economic development, and Chinese economy. Dr. Zhou has published papers in
leading international journals of economics and management including American
Economic Review, Review of Economics and Statistics, Economic Journal, Journal of
Public Economics, Journal of Development Economics, and Strategic Management Journal.

Meet the Discussant: 

Matthew E. KahnMatthew E. Kahn is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Economics and Business at Johns Hopkins University and the Director of JHU’s 21st Century Cities Initiative. He is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a research fellow at IZA. He has taught at Columbia, the Fletcher School at Tufts University, UCLA and USC. He has served as a Visiting Professor at Harvard and Stanford and as the Low Tuck Kwong Distinguished Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore. He is a graduate of Hamilton College and the London School of Economics. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago. He is the author of Green Cities: Urban Growth and the Environment (Brookings Institution Press 2006) and the co-author (joint with Dora L. Costa) of Heroes and Cowards: The Social Face of War (Princeton University Press 2009). He is also the author of Climatopolis (Basic Books 2010) and Blue Skies over Beijing: Economic Growth and the Environment in China (joint with Siqi Zheng published by Princeton Press in 2016). He has also published three other Amazon Kindle books on urban economics and microeconomics. His research focuses on urban and environmental economics.

Meet the Moderators: 

Jay Shambaugh is Professor of Economics and  International Affairs, and Co- Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. His area of research is macroeconomics and international economics. He has had two stints in public service. He served as a Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisors from 2015-2017. Earlier, he served on the staff of the CEA as a Senior Economist for International Economics and then as the Chief Economist. He also spent 3 years as the Director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution. Jay is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER and Non-Resident Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings. Prior to joining the faculty at George Washington, Jay taught at Georgetown and Dartmouth and was a visiting scholar at the IMF. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.A. from the Fletcher School at Tufts, and a B.A. from Yale University.

Chao WeiChao Wei received her PhD in Economics from Stanford University in 2001. She also holds an MA in economics from Columbia University and a BA in economics from Fudan University in China. She worked at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for two years before joining the George Washington University in 2003. Her research interests focus on the intersection of macroeconomics and financial economics, with an emphasis on the asset pricing implications of production economies with and without nominal rigidities. Her current research examines the impact of personal and corporate income taxes on asset returns. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Money and banking, and Macroeconomic Theory.

China’s Outward Investments: State Capitalism or Capital Flight?

Friday, March 5, 2021
9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
via Webex

The Institute for International Economic Policy was pleased to invite you to the 13th annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations. The conference took place as a virtual series. The conference was co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the GW Center for International Business Education and Research.

In this event, Professor Meg Rithmire discussed the nature of China’s outward investments. Deborah Brautigam (JHU-SAIS) and Stephen Kaplan (GWU) provided discussant remarks. IIEP Co-Director Jay Shambaugh moderated the discussion.

Global observers are increasingly focused on China’s “state capitalism” and its implications for trading partners and host countries. Disentangling the strategic and commercial motives for Chinese firms abroad is not straightforward, and some of Chinese companies’ global efforts subvert, rather than execute, the Chinese state’s strategic goals. In this talk, based on research on the changing role of the state in China’s economy and the internationalization of Chinese capital over the last decade, I characterize China’s approach to globalization as a series of campaigns and experiments with constant adjustments and focus on the reach and limits of the Chinese party-state.

Meet the Presenter:

Picture of Meg RithmireMeg Rithmire is F. Warren MacFarlan associate professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy Unit. Professor Rithmire holds a PhD in Government from Harvard University, and her primary expertise is in the comparative political economy of development with a focus on China and Asia. Her first book, Land Bargains and Chinese Capitalism (Cambridge University Press, 2015), examines the role of land politics, urban governments, and local property rights regimes in the Chinese economic reforms. A new project, for which Meg conducted fieldwork in Asia 2016-2017, investigates the relationship between capital and the state and globalization in Asia. The project focuses on a comparison of China, Malaysia, and Indonesia from the early 1980s to the present. The research has two components; first, examining how governments attempt to discipline business and when those efforts succeed and, second, how business adapts to different methods of state control.

Meet the Discussants:

Stephen KaplanStephen B. Kaplan is an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs. Professor Kaplan’s research and teaching interests focus on the frontiers of international and comparative political economy, where he specializes in the political economy of global finance and development, the rise of China in the Western Hemisphere, and Latin American politics.

 

 

Picture of Dr. brautigamA leading expert on China in Africa, Professor Brautigam is the author of Will Africa Feed China? (Oxford University Press, 2015), The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa (Oxford University Press, 2010; Chinese version published by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Press) and Chinese Aid and African Development: Exporting Green Revolution (St. Martin’s Press, 1998). She is also co-editor of Taxation and State-Building: Capacity and Consent(Cambridge University Press, 2008) as well as numerous articles published in academic journals and public affairs media. Professor Brautigam regularly advises international agencies and governments on China-Africa economic engagement.

Picture of Jay ShambaughJay Shambaugh is a Professor of Economics and International Affairs, and Co-Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy at the George Washington University. Professor Shambaugh’s area of research is macroeconomics and international economics. His work includes analysis of the interaction of exchange rate regimes with monetary policy, capital flows, and trade flows as well as studies of international reserves holdings, country balance sheet exchange rate exposure, the cross-country impact of fiscal policy, the crisis in the euro area, and regional growth disparities.
He has had two stints in public service. He served as a Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisors from 2015-2017. Earlier, he served on the staff of the CEA as a Senior Economist for International Economics and then as the Chief Economist. He also spent 3 years as the Director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution. He is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER and Non-Resident Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings.

Prior to joining the faculty at George Washington, Shambaugh taught at Georgetown and Dartmouth and was a visiting scholar at the IMF. Shambaugh received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.A. from the Fletcher School at Tufts, and a B.A. from Yale University.

International Trade in the Asia-Pacific Region Amidst U.S.-China Tensions

Tuesday, November 10, 2020
7:00 p.m. – 8:15 p.m. EST
via Zoom

The Institute for International Economic Policy was pleased to invite you to the 13th annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations. The conference took place as a virtual series and was co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the GW Center for International Business Education and Research. This event in the series was co-sponsored and hosted by Elliott School of International Affairs Alumni Programs.

Since 2017, trade disputes between the U.S. and China have spiraled into a full blown economic and trade war. U.S. tariff rates on Chinese imports rose from an average 3.1 percent “Most Favored Nation” rate in 2017 to above 20 percent in 2020, covering essentially all imports including both intermediate and consumer goods. China responded by imposing retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products ranging from soybeans to electrical equipment and autos. This trade war has rippled throughout the region to affect the countries of the Asia-Pacific and beyond.

This online panel discussion featured two prominent GW alumni working in the Asia-Pacific region: Chris Fussner, CCAS BA ’79, founder and president of TransTechnology Worldwide, based in Singapore, and Frank Wong, ESIA BA ’79, president of Scholastic Asia, based in Hong Kong. Prof. Maggie Chen, professor of economics and international affairs at the George Washington University, moderated the discussion.

Meet the Discussants:

Picture of Maggie ChenMaggie Chen is Professor of Economics and International Affairs at George Washington University. She has served as Director of GW’s Institute for International Economic Policy and worked as an economist in the research department of the World Bank and a consultant for the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the U.S. Congressional Budget Office. Professor Chen’s research areas include multinational firms, international trade, and regional trade agreements. Her work has been published in academic journals such as the Review of Economics and Statistics, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of International Economics, and Journal of Development Economics. She is a co-editor of Economic Inquiry and an associate editor of Economic Modeling.

Picture of Chris FussnerChris Fussner is founder and president of TransTechnology Worldwide, based in Singapore, a market leader in the sales and distribution of surface mount technology with offices in 9 countries in Asia and 3 countries in North America. Prior to forming TransTechnology in 1988, Mr. Fussner headed Far East Sales for Amistar Corporation based in Seoul, Korea and Singapore, where he was responsible for Sales and Service for electronics manufacturing industry machines in the Pacific, as well as the Western United States. Mr. Fussner started his international career working with relief and refugee resettlement in West Africa and Malaysia. He holds a B.A. in History and Asian Studies from GW, and a Master of International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He previously served on the board of advisors for GW’s Elliott School of International Affairs.

Picture of Frank WongFrank Wong is President of Scholastic Asia, and based in Hong Kong. Before joining Scholastic Asia as President over 15 years ago, he was Managing Director of PepsiCo’s food business in China and established best practices in sales execution and in-store merchandising. Prior to PepsiCo, Frank Wong spent 5 years with Nabisco, successfully building the company’s international brand identity. Wong also held various marketing positions at Colgate-Palmolive in New York and was co-founder and President of a start-up venture to develop and market special electronic products for the visually impaired around the world. Mr. Wong was born in Hong Kong and speaks fluent Mandarin and Cantonese. In addition to his degree from GW, he holds a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University and did advanced studies at Harvard’s JFK School of Government. He is the recipient of the 2015 Alumni Outstanding Service Award from the GW Alumni Association.

13th Annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Relations

Virtual Conference Series

Beginning October 30, 2020

via Webex

Schedule of Events

Friday, October 30: Keynote:

                              Carmen M. Reinhart (World Bank Group): Debt After COVID

Tuesday, November 10, 2020: International Trade in the Asia-Pacific Region

Christopher J. Fussner (TransTechnology Worldwide)

Frank Wong (Scholastic Asia)

Maggie Chen (Institute for International Economic Policy)

Friday, November 20, 2020: 13th China conference panel – Michael Song and John Rogers

Moderator: Remi Jedwab

Michael Song (Chinese University of Hong Kong): 

John Rogers (Federal Reserve Board):

Friday, January 15, 2021: The Biden Administration Turns to a Deteriorating US-China Relationship

                               Moderator: Barbara Stallings

                              David M. Lampton (Foreign Policy Institute and Johns Hopkins–SAIS)

                              Deborah Lehr (Paulson Institute)

Friday, March 5th, 2021: China’s Outward Investments: State Capitalism or Capital Flight?

                                Moderator: Jay Shambaugh 

                              Meg Rithmire (Harvard)

                              Deoborah Brautigam (JHU)

                                Stephen B. Kaplan

Friday, April 9th, 2021: Minimum Performance Targets, Multitasking and Incentives: Theory and Evidence from China’s Air Quality Controls

                                Moderators: Jay Shambaugh, Chao Wei

                             Li-An Zhou

                             Matthew E. Kahn

Friday, April 30th, 2021: Globalizing Patient Capital: The Political Economy of Chinese Finance in the Americas

                               Moderators: Jay Shambaugh

                             Stephen Kaplan

                              Carol Wise (University of Southern California) 

                              Roselyn Hsueh (Temple University) 

An archive of all previous Annual Conferences on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations is available here.

For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.

Cosponsored by:

13th China Conference Keynote Address: China’s Overseas Lending and Developing-Country Debt After COVID with Carmen Reinhart

Friday, October 30, 2020
9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
via WebEx

The Institute for International Economic Policy is pleased to invite you to the 13th annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations. This year the conference will take place as a virtual series, beginning on October 30th, with a keynote address from Carmen Reinhart on “Debt After COVID”. This conference is co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the GW Center for International Business Education and Research.

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly lengthened the list of developing and emerging market economies in debt distress. For some, a crisis is imminent. For many more, only exceptionally low global interest rates may be delaying a reckoning. Default rates are rising, and the need for debt restructuring is growing. Yet new challenges may hamper debt workouts unless governments and multilateral lenders provide better tools to navigate a wave of restructuring.

About the Speaker:

Picture of Carmen M. Reinhart

Carmen M. Reinhart is the Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank Group. Assuming this role on June 15, 2020, Reinhart provides thought leadership for the institution at an unprecedented time of crisis. She also manages the Bank’s Development Economics Department.

Reinhart’s areas of expertise are in international finance and macroeconomics. Her work has helped to inform the understanding of financial crises in both advanced economies and emerging markets. She has published extensively on capital flows, exchange rate policy, banking and sovereign debt crises, and contagion. She comes to this position on public service leave from Harvard Kennedy School where she is the Minos A. Zombanakis Professor of the International Financial System. Previously, she was the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for International Economics at the University of Maryland.

During her career, Reinhart has worked in numerous roles to address policy challenges including most recently, the coronavirus pandemic and its economic impact. She serves in the Advisory Panels of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the International Monetary Fund. Earlier, she was the Senior Policy Advisor and Deputy Director of the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund and held positions as Chief Economist and Vice President at the investment bank Bear Stearns.

Ranked among the top Economists worldwide based on publications and scholarly citations, Reinhart has been listed among Bloomberg Markets Most Influential 50 in Finance, Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers, and Thomson Reuters’ The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds. In 2018 she was awarded the King Juan Carlos Prize in Economics and NABE’s Adam Smith Award, among others. Her book (with Kenneth S. Rogoff) entitled This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly has been translated to over 20 languages and won the Paul A. Samuelson Award. She holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Recording of the event: here

Transcript of the event: here

 

Covering The Other Half Billion: China’s Rural Sector

Thursday, February 27th, 2020
4:30 PM-6:00 PM

Lindner Family Commons, Room 602
Elliott School of International Affairs
The George Washington University
1957 E Street, NW, Washington, DC 20052

For much of post-1949 history, the rural sector has been the poor relation of China’s society and economy. Today, however, the rural sector lies at the heart of Xi Jinping’s economic agenda for China’s comprehensive development. The party’s and government’s ability to fulfill major economic goals—those relating to employment, food security and rebalancing of the economic system—depend critically on the success of its rural policies. So too does its ability to realize important social and other goals—including poverty reduction, the creation of a more inclusive society, and environmental sustainability. An economically and socially revitalised Chinese countryside will also impact the political stability which China’s leaders see as the bedrock of their continuing rule. This lecture will explore all of these dimensions.

 

Speakers

Professor Robert Ash

Professor of Economics with reference to China and Taiwan

School of Oriental & African Studies

University of London

Professor Robert Ash is a Professorial Fellow in the China Institute at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he teaches in the School of Financial and Management Studies as Professor of Economics with reference to China and Taiwan. From 1986 to 1995 he was Head of the Contemporary China Institute at SOAS, and from 1997-2001 was Director of the EU-China Academic Network (ECAN). From 1999 to 2013 he was also Director of the SOAS Taiwan Studies Programme.

Professor Ash has held visiting research and teaching positions at universities in Australia, Hong Kong, France and Italy. He has been researching China for more than 40 years and has published on development issues relating to China, as well as on Taiwan and Hong Kong. His most recent major publication (2017) is a study of China’s agricultural development between 1840 and the present day, Agricultural Development in the World Periphery: A Global Economic History Approach. He has also undertaken a wide range of consultancy work in both private and public sectors—including for the British Government, the European Commission, European Parliament and the UN International Labour Organisation.

Moderator

Professor David Shambaugh

Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science & International Affairs

Director, China Policy Program

The George Washington University

 

The Biden Administration Turns to a Deteriorating US-China Relationship

Friday, January 15, 2021
09:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
WebEx

The Institute for International Economic Policy is pleased to invite you to the 13th annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations. This year, the conference will take place as a virtual series. This conference is co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the GW Center for International Business Education and Research.

In this event, Professor David Michael Lampton will give a keynote address on the future of U.S.-China relations under a new American administration. He will be joined by Barbara Stallings, IIEP Distinguished Visiting Scholar and William R. Rhodes Research Professor at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, and Deborah Lehr, Vice Chairman and Executive Director of the Paulson Institute.

About the Speakers: 

David M. Lampton is Senior Fellow at the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute and Professor Emeritus at Johns Hopkins–SAIS. Immediately prior to his current post he was Oksenberg- Rohlen Fellow at Stanford University’s Asia-Pacific Research Center from 2019-2020. For more than two decades prior to that he was Hyman Professor and Director of China Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Lampton is former Chairman of the The Asia Foundation, former President of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, and former Dean of Faculty at SAIS. Among many written works, academic and popular is his most recent book (with Selina Ho and Cheng-Chwee Kuik), Rivers of Iron: Railroads and Chinese Power in Southeast Asia (University of California Press, 2020). He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University in political science where, as an undergraduate student, he was a firefighter. Lampton has an honorary doctorate from the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Far Eastern Studies. He served for many years on the Board of Trustees of Colorado College and was in the US Army Reserve in the enlisted and commissioned ranks.

photo of deborah lehrDeborah Lehr is the Vice Chairman and Executive Director of the Paulson Institute. In that capacity, she advises the Chairman on U.S.–China relations as well as oversees the development and implementation of Paulson Institute programs and initiatives. In addition, Ms. Lehr manages the Green Finance Center for the Paulson Institute.

Ms. Lehr has served in the public, private and not for profit sectors focused on China, the Middle East and emerging markets. She advised Mr. Paulson when he was the CEO and Chairman of Goldman Sachs and helped then-Treasury Secretary Paulson to create and launch the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue.

In addition, she served as Senior Advisor to the Chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch and was a Senior Managing Director at the New York Stock Exchange. Ms. Lehr has built several successful consulting businesses, including as a partner at Mayer Brown, a top-10 law firm, as President of Stonebridge China and then with her own firm, Basilinna. Basilinna is focused on China and the Middle East.

Ms. Lehr also served in the U.S. Government in the Executive Office of the President as a Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for China, where she was a lead negotiator for China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, for two intellectual property rights negotiations and on the team for the 1992 Market Access Agreement. Also, Ms. Lehr was one of the youngest Directors of Asian Affairs at the National Security Council. Previous to that, she was involved in export control and trade policy issues at the Department of Commerce.

As the Founder and Chairman of the Antiquities Coalition, she works with governments around the world to fight against the illicit trade in antiquities. She serves on the International Advisory Board of the London School of Economics, the World Monuments Fund Board and the Middle East Institute Board. Ms. Lehr is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. UNESCO listed Ms. Lehr on its inaugural list of accomplished global women. She also received the prestigious Hadrian Award from the World Monument Fund for her work in fighting the illicit trade in antiquities.

Ms. Lehr has lived and studied around the world, including China, England, France, and Germany. Her writings have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Foreign Affairs, South China Morning Post, U.S. News and World Report, Caixin Magazine, and Xinhua.net, among others.

About the Moderator: 

photo of Barbara StallingsBarbara Stallings is William R. Rhodes Research Professor at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University and editor of Studies in Comparative International Development. She is also a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Institute for International Economic Policy at George Washington University. Before arriving at Brown in 2002, she was director of the Economic Development Division of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago, Chile (1993–2002), and professor of political economy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1977–1993). She has doctorates in economics (University of Cambridge) and in political science (Stanford University) and is a specialist in development economics, with an emphasis on development strategies and international finance. In addition, she works on issues of economic relations between Asia and Latin America and comparisons between the two regions. Her recent books are Innovation and Inclusion in Latin America: Strategies to Avoid the Middle Income Trap (2016) and Promoting Development: The Political Economy of East Asian Foreign Aid (2017). Her most recent book, Dependency in the Twenty-First Century? The Political Economy of China-Latin America Relations (2020), was selected as one of Foreign Affairs’ best books of 2020. She has taught at various universities in China and elsewhere in Asia; currently she is a distinguished visiting professor at the Schwarzman Program at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

12th Annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Relations

Friday, November 8th, 2019

Lindner Family Commons, 6th Floor

Elliott School for International Affairs

1957 E Street, NW Washington DC 20052

Schedule of Events

08:15-08:50:  Coffee and Registration

08:50-09:00:  Welcoming Remarks: James Foster (IIEP Director, GWU)


09:00-09:45: Keynote:

Daniel Xu (Duke University): “Fiscal Policies and Firm Investment in China”

09:45-10:45: The Political Economy of Protests

Moderator: Bruce Dickson (GWU)

David Yang (Harvard University): “Persistent Political Engagement: Social Interactions and the Dynamics of Protest Movements”

Davin Chor (Dartmouth College): The Political Economy Consequences of China’s Export Slowdown”. Chor’s work is available here.

10:45-11:15: Coffee Break

11:15-12:15: Capital Market Liberalization and Industrial Policy

Moderator: Chao Wei (GWU)

John Rogers (Federal Reserve Board): “The Effect of the China Connect”

Wenli Li (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia): “Demographic Aging, Industrial Policy, and Chinese Economic Growth”. Li’s work is available here.

12:15-13:15: Lunch and Poster Session

13:15–14:30: Policy Keynotes:

Chad Bown (Peterson Institute for International Economics): “The U.S.-China trade relationship under the Trump administration”. Bown’s work is available here 

David Shambaugh (GWU): “Stresses and Strains in U.S.-China Relations: Origins, Consequences, and Outlook”

14:30-15:00: Coffee Break

15:00-16:00: Industrial Policy, Technology Transfer, and Financial Access

Moderator: Maggie Chen (GWU)

Jie Bai (Harvard University): “Quid Pro Quo, Knowledge Spillovers and Industrial Quality Upgrading”

Jing Cai (University of Maryland): “Direct and Indirect Effects of Financial Access on SMEs”

16:00-17:00: The Belt and Road Initiative

Moderator: Stephen Kaplan (GWU)

Jamie P. Horsley (Brookings Institution): “Belt & Road Governance Challenges and Developments”

Scott Morris (Center for Global Development): “Belt & Road’s Debt and Project Risks”

An archive of all previous Annual Conferences on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations is available here.

For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.

Cosponsored by:

11th Annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations

We are delighted to invite you to the 11th annual conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations at GWU. The importance of understanding China’s economic development has only become more important over the last decade. Understanding the structural building blocks of domestic Chinese economic activity is as necessary as understanding China’s foreign economic activity, whether regionally across the globe or in it’s interactions with the United States.  Amidst talk of a “trade war” between the U.S. and China, it is vital that we have a shared understanding of what is taking place within the Chinese economy, how that affects relations with the U.S., and what it means for China’s global ambitions. We look forward to hosting you on the 26th to continue studying these important questions. For information on previous conferences, see our signature initiatives page. The entire conference can be viewed here.

Schedule of Events

08:15-08:50:  Coffee and Registration

08:50-09:00:  Welcoming Remarks: Maggie Chen (IIEP Director, GWU) 

09:00-09:45: Keynote: Hanming Fang (University of Pennsylvania) (Watch Video)

“Growing Pains” in the Chinese Social Security System

09:45-10:45: Trends in China’s Macro Economy (Watch Video)

                              Moderator: Chao Wei (GWU)

Kaiji Chen (Emory University): Macroeconomic Impacts of China’s Financial Policies”

Grace Li (IMF): The State and China’s Productivity Deceleration: Firm-level Evidence

10:45-11:00: Coffee Break

11:00-12:00: Technology, Institution and Firm Growth (Watch Video)

                              Moderator: Susan Aaronson (GWU)

Nancy Qian (Northwestern University): The Dynamic Effects of Computerization on VAT in China”

Maggie Chen (GWU): “’Omnia Juncta in Uno’: Foreign Powers, Institutions and Firms in Shanghai’s Concession Era”

12:00-12:50: Lunch 

12:50-13:00: Remarks by Elliott School Dean, Ambassador Reuben Brigety II

13:00-13:45: Keynote: Caroline Freund (World Bank)

                              “U.S.-China Trade Tensions” (Watch Video)

13:45-14:45: The Myths of U.S.-China Trade War (Watch Video)

                              Moderator: Steve Suranovic (GWU)

Jiandong Ju (Tsinghua University): US-China Trade Dispute and Restructuring the Globalization”

Mary Lovely (Peterson Institute for International Economics): China’s Techno-Industrial FDI Policy”

14:45-15:00: Coffee Break

15:00-16:00: Going Out: China’s Aid, Investment, and Finance to Developing Countries

                              Moderator: Joseph Pelzman (GWU)

Barbara Stallings (Brown and GWU): “China and its Neighbors: Aid and Investment in East Asia”

Stephen Kaplan (GWU): The Rise of Patient Capital: The Political Economy of Chinese Finance in the Western Hemisphere”

16:00-17:00: Gender, Migration and Labor Market in China (Watch Video)

                              Moderator: Yao Pan (Aalto University)

Peter Kuhn (UC – Santa Barbara): Gender-Targeted Job Ads in the Recruitment Process:  Evidence from China”

Suqin Ge (Virginia Tech): Assimilation and the Wage Growth of Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China”

An archive of all previous Annual Conferences on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations is available here.

For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.

Cosponsored by:

10th Annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations

Click Here to View Photos

The U.S.-China relationship is now second to none in importance for international economic relations and policy and accordingly is a major focus of IIEP. The centerpiece of this initiative is our annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic and Political Relations

Speakers

An archive of all previous Annual Conferences on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations is available here.

For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.

Schedule of Events

October 6, 2017

8:15 – 8:45AM: Coffee and Registration
8:45 – 9:00AM: Welcoming Remarks

9:00 – 9:40AM: Keynote One: U.S.-China Trade and U.S. Jobs: A Value-Chain Perspective
View the session video here

9:40 – 10:30AM: Infrastructure, Environment, and Growth
View the session video here

10:30 – 10:45AM: Coffee Break

10:45 – 12:00PM: Policy Session 1: Chinese Macro-Economy in the Next Decade
View the session video here

12:00 – 12:45PM: Lunch 

12:45 – 1:25PM: Keynote Two: Lessons of China’s Experience and Experience of the US for China
View the session video here

1:25 – 2:40PM: Globalization and Human Capital
View the session video here

2:40 – 2:50PM: Dean’s Remarks
View the session video here

2:50 – 4:05PM: Policy Session 2: An Outlook of U.S.-China Trade Relations
View the session video here

  • Moderator: Steve Suranovic, GWU
  • Wendy CutlerAsia Society Policy Institute
  • Junjie Hong, University of International Business and Economics
  • Maggie ChenGeorge Washington University
4:05 – 4:20PM: Coffee Break

4:20 – 5:35PM: Policy Session 3: The China Model of Economic Development
View the session video here

5:35 – 5:40PM: Closing Remarks

9th Annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S. China Economic Relations

Click here to view videos

The U.S.-China relationship is now second to none in importance for international economic relations and policy and accordingly is a major focus of IIEP. The centerpiece of this initiative is our annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic and Political Relations

This year, key topics discussed will include China’s financial market, the state of China’s macro-economy, the China-Africa relationship, and China’s outward investments and their impacts. For more information about the conference and bios of each panelist, visit our blog

An archive of all previous Annual Conferences on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations is available here. For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.

Schedule of Events

November 11, 2016

8:00 – 8:50AM Coffee and Continental Breakfast

8:50 – 9:00AM Welcome and Overview of the Conference

  • Stephen Smith, Director, Institute for International Economic Policy (IIEP), Professor of Economics and International Affairs, GWU

9:00 – 11:00AM Panel 1: The Future of Trade Integration in the Asia Pacific

Moderated by IIEP affiliate Steve SuranovicProfessor of Economics and International Affairs, The George Washington University

  • Jeff Schott, Peterson Institute for International Economics, “Will the US Invest in or Divest from Asia-Pacific Economic Integration?” 
  • Michael Plummer, JHU, “Megaregionalism in the Asia-Pacific and Options for Shared Chinese-US Leadership”
  • Jiandong Ju, Shanghai University of Finance & Economics, “Huaxia Community: A FTA and a New Architecture for the Global Economic System”

11:00 – 11:15AM Coffee Break

11:15 – 12:45PM Panel 2:The Internet in China’s Economy

Moderated by IIEP affiliate Susan Aaronson, Research Professor of Intenrational Affairs, The George Washington University

  • Hong Xue, Beijing Normal University, “Chinese Electronic Commerce Law: the New Basic Law for Digital Economy”
  • Jingting Fan, UMD, “The Alibaba Effect: Spatial Consumption Inequality and the Welfare Gains from e-Commerce”
  • Maggie Chen, George Washington University, “International Trade on the Internet: Evidence from Alibaba”

12:45 – 2:00PM Lunch

2:00 – 3:30PM Panel 3: Trade, Migration, and Wage Premium in China

Moderated by IIEP affiliate Joseph PelzmanProfessor of Economics and International Affairs, The George Washington University

  • Chao Wei, George Washington University, The Short and Long of Trade and Migration Reforms in China (joint with Xiaodong Zhu)
  • RuiXue Jia, UCSD, “Access to Elite Education, Wage Premium, and Social Mobility: The Truth and Illusion of China’s College Entrance Exam”
  • Eunhee Lee, University of Maryland at College Park, “Trade, Inequality, and the Endogenous Sorting of Heterogeneous workers”
3:30 – 4:00PM: Coffee Break

4:00 – 5:30PM  Panel 4: China’s Macroeconomy, Urban Growth and Policy Analysis

Moderated by IIEP affiliate Remi Jedwab, Professor of Economics and International Affairs, The George Washington University

  • Zheng LiuFederal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (also affiliated with the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance),“Reserve Requirements and Optimal Chinese Stabilization Policy”
  • Matthew TurnerBrown University, “Highways, Market Access and Urban Growth in China”
  • Kai ZhaoUniversity of Connecticut, “The Chinese Saving Rate: Productivity, Old Age Support and Demographics

Digital Trade Conference: The End of Trade as We Know It?

Thursday and Friday, May 5-6, 2016

Elliott School of International Affairs
Lindner Commons, 6th floor
1957 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

The Internet and associated technologies are both a platform for trade and a technology transforming trade. We define digital trade as commerce in products and services delivered via the Internet (USITC: 2013, i). Although digital trade is the fastest growing component of trade, policymakers are just learning how to create an environment to facilitate such trade in developed and developing countries alike. The Transpacific Partnership (TPP) is the first trade agreement to include binding provisions related to the information flows that power digital trade, but that agreement (and others under negotiation) say little about the domestic and international regulatory context in which the Internet functions. However, as the World Bank notes, an effective regulatory environment is essential to reaping the benefits of the information economy and digital trade (World Bank: 2016)

Trade agreements may not be the best place to regulate information flows — which are a global public good that governments should provide and regulate effectively in a cooperative manner with other governments. Moreover, many Internet issues that involve information flows, such as privacy or the security of data are not market access issues (the traditional turf of trade agreements) issues (Aaronson: 2016).

In this conference, we will examine digital trade as well as barriers to cross-border information flows. We will also discuss the role of trade agreements as tools of Internet governance; examine the domestic and international regulatory environment for information; and focus on how to cooperate to encourage cross-border information flows. We plan to encourage audience and panelist dialogue about these issues.

The Internet Society DC Chapter (ISOC-DC) will be providing a live stream of the conference to be linked to this page.

Susan Ariel Aaronson, Research Professor of International Affairs and a Cross-Disciplinary Fellow at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs

Susan Ariel Aaronson is Research Professor of International Affairs and a Cross-Disciplinary Fellow at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. She is currently the Carvalho Fellow at the Government Accountability Project and was the former Minerva Chair at the National War College. Aaronson’s research examines the relationship between economic change and human rights. She is currently directing projects on digital trade and digital rights, repression and civil conflict; trade, trust and transparency; and whistleblowers at international organizations such as the UN and WIPO. Her work has been funded by major international foundations including MacArthur, Ford, and Rockefeller; governments such as the Netherlands, U.S., and Canada; the UN, ILO, and World Bank, and U.S. corporations including Ford Motor and Levi Strauss. Dr. Aaronson is a frequent speaker on public understanding of globalization issues and international economic developments. She regularly comments on international economics on “Marketplace” and was a monthly commentator on “All Things Considered,” “Marketplace,” and “Morning Edition.” She has also appeared on CNN, the BBC, and PBS to discuss trade and globalization issues. Aaronson was a Guest Scholar in Economics at the Brookings Institution (1995–1999); and a Research Fellow at the World Trade Institute 2008-2012.

Maja Andjelkovic, World Bank Mobile Innovation Specialist

Maja is interested in the potential of entrepreneurship and human ingenuity to contribute to economic, environmental and social development. She has spent over 12 years connecting these fields, including as product manager in a web-technology startup, lead researcher at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, and counselor for Canada for the World Bank Group. Since 2009, she has worked to expand infoDev’s mobile innovation program, including by extending our offering to better serve women founders of tech startups in emerging and frontier markets. Maja is pursuing a doctorate at the University of Oxford under Professor Bill Dutton, with a focus on innovation ecosystems and with support from Oxford University Press.

Michael Ferrantino, World Bank Lead Economist

Michael J. Ferrantino is Lead Economist in the World Bank Group Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice. Prior to joining the Bank, he was Lead International Economist at the US International Trade Commission. Michael’s published research spans a wide array of topics relating to international trade, including non-tariff measures and trade facilitation, global value chains, the relationship of trade to the environment, innovation, and productivity, and US-China trade. He has taught at Southern Methodist, Youngstown State, Georgetown, American, and George Washington Universities. Michael’s recent work includes: “The Benefits of Trade Facilitation: A Modelling Exercise,” prepared for the World Economic Forum’s January 2013 report on supply chains, “Enabling Trade: Valuing Growth Opportunities;” a chapter on non-tariff measures in The Ashgate Research Companion to International Trade Policy (2012); and “Evasion Behaviors of Exporters and Importers; Evidence from the U.S.-China Trade Data Discrepancy,” with Xuepeng Liu and Zhi Wang, Journal of International Economics, 2012. Michael holds a PhD from Yale University.

Kyle Renner, IIEP Operations Manager

Kyle Renner manages the Institute for International Economic Policy (IIEP) and provides career and academic advice for the International Trade and Investment Policy (ITIP) master’s program at the Elliott School for International Affairs. Kyle manages IIEP’s research agenda which is broadly concentrated on the areas of international trade, international finance, and international development; with special focus on U.S.-China economic relations, climate change adaptation, ultra-poverty, and global economic governance. He has managed sponsored research projects funded by USAID, the Asian Development Bank, the U.S. Army Research Office, and the Hewlett, Ford, and MacArthur foundations among others. He is also responsible for organizing IIEP’s many events, including scholarly seminars, working groups, policy fora, and research conferences. Kyle provides academic and professional counseling to students in the ITIP program, and serves on the ITIP Program Committee. Kyle completed his B.A. and M.A. in International Affairs at the Elliott School for International Affairs, focusing on international politics, conflict and conflict resolution, and the Middle East. He is interested in the areas of self-sustainable education and business development, and their impact on civil society and economic growth.

 

Speakers and Discussants

Keynote Speakers

Susan Lund, Partner, McKinsey Global Institute, McKinsey & Company (author of Digital Globalization—the New Flows)

Susan Lund is a partner of McKinsey & Company and a leader of the McKinsey Global Institute. She conducts economic research on global financial markets, trade, labor markets, and country productivity and growth.

Her latest report focuses on how digital technologies are transforming globalization. Other recent research examines the continuing accumulation of global debt and potential risks; how digital talent platforms are transforming labor markets; and growth prospects for African economies given the collapse of commodity prices. Susan has an active travel schedule discussing research findings with business executives and policy makers, and she is a frequent speaker at global conferences.

She has authored numerous articles on digital globalization. Susan is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Association of Business Economists, and the Conference of Business Economists.

Klaus Tilmes, Senior Director, World Bank Group Global Practice on Trade and Competitiveness

Klaus Tilmes is Director of the Trade & Competitiveness Global Practice at the World Bank Group. In his position, Tilmes is responsible for such global themes as Trade, Competitive Sectors, Investment Climate and Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Prior to his current position, Klaus was the Director of the Financial and Private Sector Development (FPD) Network at the World Bank, a position he held from 2010 to 2014. Tilmes has a Master’s degree in Public Administration focused on Development Economics and Public Sector Management from Harvard University, and a Master’s in Economics from the University of Mannheim.

Panelists

Susan Ariel Aaronson, Research Professor of International Affairs and a Cross-Disciplinary Fellow at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs

Susan Ariel Aaronson is Research Professor of International Affairs and a Cross-Disciplinary Fellow at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. She is currently the Carvalho Fellow at the Government Accountability Project and was the former Minerva Chair at the National War College. Aaronson’s research examines the relationship between economic change and human rights. She is currently directing projects on digital trade and digital rights, repression and civil conflict; trade, trust and transparency; and whistleblowers at international organizations such as the UN and WIPO. Her work has been funded by major international foundations including MacArthur, Ford, and Rockefeller; governments such as the Netherlands, U.S., and Canada; the UN, ILO, and World Bank, and U.S. corporations including Ford Motor and Levi Strauss. Dr. Aaronson is a frequent speaker on public understanding of globalization issues and international economic developments. She regularly comments on international economics on “Marketplace” and was a monthly commentator on “All Things Considered,” “Marketplace,” and “Morning Edition.” She has also appeared on CNN, the BBC, and PBS to discuss trade and globalization issues. Aaronson was a Guest Scholar in Economics at the Brookings Institution (1995–1999); and a Research Fellow at the World Trade Institute 2008-2012.

Daniel Adidwa, Tour2.0, South Africa

Mr. Adidwa is a leader who is passionate about entrepreneurship and technology. He takes pleasure in channeling this passion through sourcing innovative solutions, that address current problems within the African continent and taking these solutions to market.

He is a qualified marketer and attained his BA Degree in Integrated Marketing Communication and a Diploma in Account Management from the AAA School of Advertising. Daniel has worked at various communications agencies, where he worked on various local and international blue chip accounts.

He is passionate about the African continent, its people and the stories behind African communities. He believes that technology can play a large role in getting the world to experience real African Stories. He currently holds the position of CEO of Tour2.0 and Vice-Chairman of the Regional Tourism Association of Southern Africa (RETOSA) youth steering committee.

Usman Ahmed, Director, Global Public Policy, PayPal

Usman Ahmed is the Head of Global Public Policy at PayPal Inc. His work covers a variety of global issues including financial services regulation, innovation, international trade, and entrepreneurship. He has given talks on these subjects at conferences and universities around the world and has published in the World Economic Forum Global Information Technology Report, Journal of World Trade, and the Michigan Journal of International Law. Ahmed is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law School where he teaches courses on international law and policy issues related to the Internet. Prior to PayPal, Usman worked at a number of policy think tanks in the Washington DC area focusing on good governance issues. Ahmed earned his JD from University of Michigan, his MA from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and his BA from University of Maryland.

Robert D. Atkinson, President, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

As founder and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), Robert D. Atkinson leads a prolific team of policy analysts and fellows that is successfully shaping the debate and setting the agenda on a host of critical issues at the intersection of technological innovation and public policy.

He is an internationally recognized scholar and a widely published author whom The New Republic has named one of the “three most important thinkers about innovation,” Washingtonian Magazine has called a “tech titan,” and Government Technology Magazine has judged to be one of the 25 top “doers, dreamers and drivers of information technology.”

A sought-after speaker and valued adviser to policymakers around the world, Atkinson’s books include Innovation Economics: The Race for Global Advantage (link is external) (Yale, 2012), Supply-Side Follies: Why Conservative Economics Fails, Liberal Economics Falters, and Innovation Economics is the Answer (link is external) (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), and The Past And Future Of America’s Economy: Long Waves Of Innovation That Power Cycles Of Growth (link is external) (Edward Elgar, 2005). He also has conducted groundbreaking research projects and authored hundreds of articles and reports on technology and innovation-related topics ranging from tax policy to advanced manufacturing, productivity, and global competitiveness.

Abdoul Aziz Sy, Vice President for International Rights and Strategy, Public Knowledge

Abdoul Aziz Sy holds a Master in International Sustainable Development from Brandeis University in the United States. He joined the team Upstart in March 2014 as project manager of the ICT project for Good Governance, coordinated by Upstart in partnership with OSIWA Foundation. Aziz also holds a BA in International Relations and has been for 2 years vice president of SIFE team (Students in Free Enterprise) Suffolk University with the aim to find entrepreneurial solutions to improve the lives of communities. His career includes such courses in structures such as Ernst & Young and the American NGO Ashoka.

Brian Bieron, Director of Public Policy, eBay and Main Street

Brian Bieron is Executive Director of the Public Policy Lab. Bieron has published and spoken on a broad variety of issues at the nexus of technology and commerce including taxation, telecommunications, customs, and intellectual property.

Bieron led eBay’s US Government Relations Team in Washington, DC from 2004 to 2012, overseeing eBay staff, outside lobbying firms, a DC-based PR firm, various trade associations and a federal political action committee. These resources were focused on issues important to eBay and its community of users, including sales tax collection on the Internet, net neutrality, proposals to ISP third-party liability, and cross-border trade policies impacting small businesses.

Prior to joining eBay, Bieron spent three-and-a-half years as a Director at Clark & Weinstock, one of Washington’s leading bipartisan lobbying and consulting firms. He supported a wide range of clients, including leading technology, telecommunications, and financial services companies such as Microsoft, AT&T, PhRMA, NASDAQ, and eBay. He also spent twelve years on Capitol Hill as a congressional staff person, including service as Policy Director for House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, where he played a lead role on key congressional trade and technology issues.

Nicholas Bramble, Public Policy Manager, Google

Nicholas Bramble is a Public Policy Manager at Google, where he focuses on trade policy and international relations. Prior to joining Google he was a Presidential Innovation Fellow, and served as a lecturer and director of the Law and Media Program at Yale Law School. He filed amicus briefs in Golan v. Holder and FCC v. Fox, and has published articles in Hastings Law Journal, Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review, and the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology.

Mr. Bramble earned his J.D. at Harvard Law School and holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Stanford University. He clerked for the Honorable Charles F. Lettow on the US Court of Federal Claims, and was a visiting researcher at the Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy.

Ralph Carter, Managing Director, Federal Express

As Managing Director of Legal, Trade & International Affairs, Ralph Carter is responsible for coordinating FedEx’s international regulatory affairs, including trade policy. Mr. Carter joined FedEx in Brussels, Belgium in 2001 and directed FedEx’s government affairs activities with the European Commission, Parliament and Council, as well as with Member State governments. Mr. Carter also served as in-house legal counsel responsible for commercial transactions and regulatory compliance for Central and Eastern Europe.

Before joining FedEx, Mr. Carter worked in the United States Department of State, serving as the Special Assistant to the United States Ambassador to the European Union. He is currently a member of the State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy.

Mr. Carter has a BS and JD from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a Masters of Laws from American University.

Anupam Chander, Professor of Law, UC-Davis, author of “The Electronic Silk Road”

Anupam Chander is Director of the California International Law Center and Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis. A graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, he has been a visiting professor at Yale, Chicago, Stanford, and Cornell. The author of The Electronic Silk Road (Yale University Press), he has published widely in the nation’s leading law journals, including the Yale Law Journal, the NYU Law Review, and the California Law Review. He practiced law in New York and Hong Kong with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. He served on the executive council of the American Society of International Law and serves as a judge for the Stanford Junior International Faculty Forum. The recipient of Google Research Awards and an Andrew Mellon grant on the topic of surveillance, he is a member of the ICTSD/World Economic Forum E15 expert group on the digital economy and the World Economic Forum expert group on Internet fragmentation.

Krista Cox, Director of Public Policy Initiatives, Association of Research Libraries

Krista Cox is the director of public policy Initiatives at ARL. In this role, she advocates for the policy priorities of the Association and executes strategies to implement these priorities. She monitors legislative trends and participates in ARL’s outreach to the Executive Branch and the US Congress.

Prior to joining ARL, Krista worked as the staff attorney for Knowledge Ecology International, an organization dedicated to searching for better outcomes, including new solutions, to the management of knowledge resources, particularly in the context of social justice. While at KEI, she wrote and filed amicus briefs in various intellectual property cases; attended the WIPO Diplomatic Conference that concluded the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled; and worked extensively on promoting better policies for the intellectual property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). She also has prior experience as the staff attorney for Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, an organization that promotes access to medicines, particularly those technologies created through federal funding.

Krista received her JD from the University of Notre Dame and her BA in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is licensed to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the State Bar of California.

Michael Ferrantino, World Bank Lead Economist

Michael J. Ferrantino is Lead Economist in the World Bank Group Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice. Prior to joining the Bank, he was Lead International Economist at the US International Trade Commission. Michael’s published research spans a wide array of topics relating to international trade, including non-tariff measures and trade facilitation, global value chains, the relationship of trade to the environment, innovation, and productivity, and US-China trade. He has taught at Southern Methodist, Youngstown State, Georgetown, American, and George Washington Universities. Michael’s recent work includes: “The Benefits of Trade Facilitation: A Modelling Exercise,” prepared for the World Economic Forum’s January 2013 report on supply chains, “Enabling Trade: Valuing Growth Opportunities;” a chapter on non-tariff measures in The Ashgate Research Companion to International Trade Policy (2012); and “Evasion Behaviors of Exporters and Importers; Evidence from the U.S.-China Trade Data Discrepancy,” with Xuepeng Liu and Zhi Wang, Journal of International Economics, 2012. Michael holds a PhD from Yale University.

Paul Fehlinger, Manager and Co-Founder, Internet & Jurisdiction Project

Paul Fehlinger is the Manager and Co-Founder of the Internet & Jurisdiction Project. He is actively engaged in global Internet fora, including as a speaker at venues such as the UN Internet Governance Forum, OECD, or Council of Europe. Paul was appointed to the Advisory Network of the Global Commission on Internet Governance and to the Working Group on Rule of Law of the Freedom Online Coalition. He is also a participant in the Council of Europe Committee of Experts on Cross-border Flow of Internet Traffic and Internet Freedom, and the World Economic Forum’s Future of the Internet Initiative.

He holds a Master in International Relations from Sciences Po Paris, where he specialized in Internet politics and new modes of global governance. He was a scholar of the German National Merit Foundation (Studienstiftung), a visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and holds a BA in European Studies from Maastricht University. Prior to launching the Internet & Jurisdiction Project, Paul wanted to become a journalist and worked for a political news broadcaster in Berlin and an international radio station in Paris.

Sean Flynn, Professional Lecturer, American University School of Law

Sean Flynn teaches courses on the intersection of intellectual property, trade law, and human rights and is the Associate Director of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP). At PIJIP, Professor Flynn designs and manages a wide variety of research and advocacy projects that promote public interests in intellectual property and information law and coordinates PIJIP’s academic program, including events, student advising and curriculum development. Professor Flynn’s research examines legal frameworks promoting access to essential goods and services. He serves as counsel for advocacy organizations and state legislatures seeking to promote and defend regulations that promote access to essential medicines. (PIJIP).

Prior to joining WCL, Professor Flynn completed clerkships with Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson on the South African Constitutional Court and Judge Raymond Fisher on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He also represented consumers and local governments as a senior associate with Spiegel & McDiarmid and as senior attorney for the Consumer Project on Technology, served on the policy team advising then Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Deval Patrick, and taught Constitutional Law at the University of Witwaterstrand, South Africa.

Damien Levie, EU Delegation, Trade and Agricultural Affairs

Damien Levie heads the Trade and Agriculture Section of the European Union Delegation in Washington, DC.

Before coming to Washington, he was a member of the Cabinet (personal office) of EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht from 2009 to 2012. He subsequently headed the USA and Canada team of the Directorate General for Trade at the European Commission. During that period, he contributed to the pursuit of an ambitious EU trade policy agenda with the Americas, in particular the launch of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations between the U.S. and the EU, for which he was deputy chief negotiator.

Damien joined the European Commission in 2001, working on issues including merger control policy and REACH, the EU’s basic chemical regulation. From 2005 to 2009, he served in the Cabinet of Louis Michel, EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid. During that period, he worked on economic development policy in Africa as well as European economic integration issues.

He has law degrees from KU Leuven and the University of Chicago Law School and an economics degree from UC Louvain. He was a lawyer at a major US law firm in Brussels and New York from 1994 to 2001.

Jeremy Malcolm, Senior Global Policy Analyst, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Jeremy Malcolm joined EFF’s international team in 2014 and works on the international dimensions of issues such as intellectual property, network neutrality, Internet governance, and trade. Prior to that he worked for Consumers International coordinating its global programme Consumers in the Digital Age. Jeremy graduated with degrees in Law (with Honours) and Commerce in 1995 from Murdoch University, and completed his PhD thesis at the same University in 2008 on the topic of Internet governance. Jeremy’s background is as an information technology and intellectual property lawyer and IT consultant. He enjoys acting, writing and coding, and his ambitions include writing an original science fiction novel, learning to juggle and learning Japanese (ideally both at once).

Jeremy is admitted to the bars of the Supreme Court of Western Australia (1995), High Court of Australia (1996) and Appellate Division of New York (2009). He is a former co-coordinator of the Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus, founder of Best Bits, and currently a Steering Committee member of the OECD Civil Society Information Society Advisory Council.

Joshua Meltzer, Senior Fellow, Brookings

Dr. Joshua Meltzer is a senior fellow in Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution and an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies. Dr. Meltzer is also a reviewer for the Journal of Politics and Law. His work focuses on international trade law and policy issues relating to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Free Trade Agreements.

Sandy Reback, Director, Global Public Policy, Akamai

Sanford Reback, Director of Global Public Policy at Akamai Technologies, has more than 25 years of policy, business, and legal experience in the technology sector. He served as Deputy General Counsel for Policy at UUNET Technologies, then the world’s largest Internet service provider (ISP); Senior International Counsel at MCI, then a Fortune 100 company; and a senior executive at two venture-backed technology companies. In the Executive Office of the President at the U.S. Trade Representative, Reback helped negotiate NAFTA, the World Trade Organization agreements, and several international technology agreements. Immediately prior to joining Akamai, he was Senior Technology Analyst and Director of Global Business at Bloomberg Government. Reback holds a B.A. in political science from Stanford University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.P.A. from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and was a Fulbright Fellow in London.

Kevin M. Rosenbaum, Of Counsel, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP; Counsel to the International Intellectual Property Alliance

Kevin Rosenbaum has over sixteen years of experience counseling on intellectual property and international trade matters as well as with legislative and regulatory processes and policy development related to international trade and the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in foreign markets. He currently serves as counsel to the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), a coalition of five copyright-based industry trade associations (comprised of over 3,200 companies), on international copyright protection and enforcement matters.

Carolina Rossini, Vice President for International Rights and Strategy, Public Knowledge

Carolina Rossini is the Vice President for International Rights and Strategy at Public Knowledge. Previously, Carolina was a Project Director at New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, the International Intellectual Property Director at Electronic Frontiers Foundation (EFF), and a Fellow at the Berkman Center at Harvard University.

Alongside her work at Public Knowledge, she is a Global Partners Digital International Associate, an X-Lab fellow for New America Foundation, and an Advisory Board Member of Open Knowledge Foundation for both the UK and Brazil. She is also an Advisory Board Member for Saylor Foundation, Instituto Educadigital, and InternetLab. Carolina has an LLM in Intellectual Property from Boston University, an MBA from Instituto de Empresas, an MA in International Economic Negotiations from UNICAMP/UNESP, and a JD from University of Sao Paulo – USP.

Matthew Schruers, Vice President, Law & Policy, Computer & Communications Industry Association

Matthew Schruers is Vice President for Law & Policy at the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), where he represents and advises the association on domestic and international policy issues including intellectual property, competition, and trade. He is also an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and the Georgetown Graduate School Program on Communication, Culture, and Technology (CCT), where he teaches courses on intellectual property.

Mr. Schruers joined CCIA from Morrison & Foerster LLP in 2005, where he practiced intellectual property, antitrust, and administrative law. Mr. Schruers received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served on the editorial board of the Virginia Law Review, and received his B.A. from Duke University.

Shawn Tan, World Bank

Shawn Tan is an Economist in the World Bank’s Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice. He is currently working on trade policy and private sector development issues for countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He was in the core team of the 2016 World Development Report “Digital Dividends”, where he authored the international trade sections. Prior to working at the World Bank, he worked at the Singapore Economic Development Board as a senior officer in the International Policy Division, where he was involved in Singapore’s trade agreement negotiations, ASEAN trade and investment forums and trade facilitation for MNCs in Singapore. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics for the University of Melbourne. His research interests are broadly in international trade and the effects of institution, policy and regulation changes on firms.

Diego Molano Vega, former ICT Minister of Colombia

Mr. Molano is Electronic Engineer, born in Boyacá and Master in Economy. Diego Molano Vega is an outstanding international expert in the telecommunications world, area in which he has been working during twenty years in entities as the Colombian Regulatory Commission of Telecommunications (CRT) and multinationals.

Moderators

Maja Andjelkovic, Mobile Innovation Specialist, World Bank

Maja is interested in the potential of entrepreneurship and human ingenuity to contribute to economic, environmental and social development. She has spent over 12 years connecting these fields, including as product manager in a web-technology startup, lead researcher at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, and counselor for Canada for the World Bank Group. Since 2009, she has worked to expand infoDev’s mobile innovation program, including by extending our offering to better serve women founders of tech startups in emerging and frontier markets. Maja is pursuing a doctorate at the University of Oxford under Professor Bill Dutton, with a focus on innovation ecosystems and with support from Oxford University Press.

Victoria Guida, Trade Reporter, POLITICO

Victoria Guida has covered trade for roughly four years, first at Inside U.S. trade and now at POLITICO Pro, the subscriber-only policy side of the Washington publication. Before covering trade, she worked briefly as a business reporter for the Charlotte Observer.

Originally from Dallas, Texas, she is a graduate of the University of Missouri, where she majored in journalism and political science.

Martin Molinuevo, Consultant, World Bank

Martín Molinuevo is a consultant in the World Bank Group Trade and Competitivness Global Practice, where he focuses on international trade in services, trade agreements, and regulation. He has previously worked for a number of international organizations, including the WTO, UNCTAD, and the EU on matters related to trade in services, foreign investment, and dispute settlement. Martin, a lawyer by training, holds a Doctor Iuris magna cum laude from the University of Bern, Switzerland, and has published articles in international journals, contributed chapters to various edited books, and published a book on trade and investment agreements (“Protecting Investing in Services: Investor-State Arbitration vs. WTO Dispute Settlement,” Wolters-Kluwer, 2012).

Hanna Norberg, Tradeeconomista.com

Hanna C. Norberg is an independent Trade Policy Advisor and the founder of TradeEconomista.com. She obtained her Ph.D in International Economics from Lund University, Sweden in 2000. She has substantial experience of both micro and macro economics as well as applied economics from working as advisor, consultant, researcher and university lecturer. Her primary interests are trade, trade policy, economic integration and development. She has extensive experience in policy implication from working numerous trade policy impact assessment projects for the European Commission (FTAs covering the majority of the world e.g. T-TIP, Japan and ASEAN, Korea, various MENA countries, Mercosur) and national governments. In addition, she has done work for ECFIN, OECD, WTO and multiple parts of the Swedish government.

Tracey Samuelson, American Public Media (APM)

Tracey Samuelson is a New-York based reporter for APM’s Marketplace, covering business and economic stories, with a recent focus on international trade and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In addition to Marketplace, her radio stories have appeared on NPR, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and the Planet Money podcast, as well as in print for The New York Times, New York Magazine, and the Christian Science Monitor, among others.

 

Day 1: May 5, 2:30 – 6:30 PM

2:30 – 4:00 PM: Panel 1, The Enabling Environment for Digital Trade as a Tool for Development

Moderator: Martin Molinuevo, World Bank

Panelists: Abdoul Aziz Sy (CTIC Dakar, Senegal), Daniel Adidwa (Tour2.0, South Africa), Diego Molano Vega (former ICT Minister of Colombia), and Michael Ferrantino(World Bank)

4:00 – 4:15 PM: Coffee Break

4:15 – 5:30 PM: Panel 2, A Conversation on Rethinking IPR Online to Support Development

Moderator: Maja Andjelkovic, World Bank

Panelists: Sean Flynn (Professional Lecturer, American University School of Law), Kevin M. Rosenbaum (Of Counsel, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP; Counsel to the International Intellectual Property Alliance), Rob Atkinson (President, Information Technology and Innnovation Foundation), Krista Cox (Director of Public Policy Initiatives, Association of Research Libraries), and Matthew Schruers (Computer & Communications Industry Association)

5:30 – 6:30 PM: First Keynote, Klaus Tilmes (Director, Trade & Competitiveness, World Bank)

Day 2: May 6, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

9:00 – 10:30 AM: Panel 3, Barriers to Digital Trade as a Tool for Development

Moderator: Victoria Guida, Politico

Panelists: Shawn Tan (principal author of the international trade section of World Development Report 2016, World Bank), Ralph Carter (Managing Director, Federal Express), Anupam Chander (Professor of Law, UC-Davis, author of “The Electronic Silk Road”), and Usman Ahmed (Director, Global Public Policy, PayPal)

10:30 – 11:00 AM: Coffee Break

11:00 – 12:30 PM: Panel 4, Do Provisions Regulating Digital Trade Need a Rethink?

Moderator: Hanna Norberg, Tradeeconomista.com

Panelists: Sandy Reback (Director, Global Public Policy, Akamai), Carolina Rossini (Vice President, International Policy, Public Knowledge), Jeremy Malcolm (Senior Global Policy Analyst, Electronic Frontier Foundation), Damien Levie (EU Delegation, Trade and Agricultural Affairs), and Nicholas Bramble (Public Policy Manager at Google)

12:30 – 2:00 PM: Luncheon Keynote: Susan Lund, Partner, McKinsey Global Institute, McKinsey & Company (author of Digital Globalization—the New Flows)

2:15 – 3:45 PM: Panel 5, Future Barriers to Digital Trade and Digital Trade Agreements

Moderator: Tracey Samuelson, APM

Panelists: Brian Bieron (Director of Public Policy, eBay and Main Street), Joshua Meltzer (Senior Fellow, Brookings), Paul Fehlinger (Internet and Jurisdiction), and Susan Ariel Aaronson (Research Professor and Cross Disciplinary FellowGWU).

 

Susan Aaronson has written extensively on digital trade, raising questions about both the process and the content of digital trade provisions and what they mean for the Open internet, digital rights and digital trade. View her free Course on Digital Trade and Global Internet Governance through ICANN.

Publications

E15Initiative
National Foreign Trade Council

For more informatio

TPP & the Internet: A Multistakeholder Perspective

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) includes many provisions with significant effects on the Internet and in particular on cross-border information flows. As in many trade agreements, the provisions of TPP are complex and difficult to understand. The Institute for International Economic Policy — in concert with the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) and the Internet Policy Forum of the Internet Society – DC Chapter — is hosting a breakfast discussion of the cross-border data flow provisions, focusing in particular on their impact on the free flow of information between the 12 nations that today comprise some 25% of global Internet users. IIEP is excited to host Fanny Hidvégi, International Privacy Fellow at EPIC, Mark MacCarthy, Vice President of Government Affairs at the Software and Information Industry Association, Peter Maybarduk, director of access to medicine and information at Public Citizen, Sanford Reback, Director of Global Public Policy at Akamai, and Susan Aaronson, IIEP affiliate and International Affairs professor at the George Washington University, will discuss the impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Internet governance. Tracey D. Samuelson of APR Marketplace will moderate.

Speakers

 

Susan Aaronson

IIEP Affiliate and International Affairs Professor, GWU

Susan Ariel Aaronson is Research Professor at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and the former Minerva Chair at the National War College. She teaches courses in international trade issues; digital trade; and corruption, development and good governance. She directs a fellowship fund for students working on internet issues, the eBay Policy Scholars, and has organized several seminars on Internet issues and human rights metrics. While at GWU, Aaronson has received grants from the MacArthur, Ford, Swiss National Science Foundation and Ford Motor Company for her work on internet freedom and trade, corruption, and business and human rights. Her current research focuses on malware, trade and trust; the WTO and conflict; and repression, civil conflict and socio-economic outcomes.

Fanny Hidvégi

International Privacy Fellow, EPIC

Fanny Hidvégi is an International Privacy Fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). She graduated from law school (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest) in 2010. During university studies she spent one academic year at the University of Florence on an Erasmus Scholarship. After graduation she worked at the Consumer Protection Section of the Hungarian Competition Authority and, later, in a law firm specialized in the field of unfair commercial practices. From 2012 until 2015, she worked as the Head of the Data Protection and Freedom of Information Program of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, where her responsibilities varied from strategic litigation through drafting policy papers until representing the HCLU in the media. One of the most important privacy projects she has been involved with is the fight against the national data retention law in Hungary.

 

Mark MacCarthy

Senior Vice President, Public Policy, SIIA

Mark MacCarthy directs SIIA’s public policy initiatives in the areas of intellectual property enforcement, information privacy, cybersecurity, cloud computing and the promotion of educational technology. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University, where he teaches courses in information privacy and tech policy in the Communication, Culture, and Technology Program, and courses in political philosophy in their Philosophy Department. His previous public policy experience includes senior positions with Visa, Inc., the Wexler Walker Group and Capital Cities/ABC and the Energy and Commerce Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds a Ph.D in philosophy from Indiana University and an MA in economics from the University of Notre Dame.

 

Peter Maybarduk

Public Citizen

Peter Maybarduk directs Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines and knowledge economy group, which helps partners around the world overcome high-price pharmaceutical monopolies and secure the benefits of science, technology and culture for all. Maybarduk is an intellectual property expert and presently a visiting fellow with the Information Society Program at Yale Law School. Maybarduk’s work has yielded HIV/AIDS medicine price reductions, new state access to medicines policies and global shifts toward anti-counterfeiting policies that safeguard generic competition. His analysis and advocacy have been instrumental in developing widespread opposition to harmful measures in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership. Maybarduk’s work for public health and an open knowledge economy has been covered in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Times of India, The Washington Post, The Guardian and other major papers. Read Public Citizen’s recent profile of Maybarduk and his work.

 

Sanford C. Reback

Director, Global Public Policy, Akamai

Sanford Reback, Director of Global Public Policy at Akamai Technologies, has more than 25 years of policy, business, and legal experience in the technology sector. He served as Deputy General Counsel for Policy at UUNET Technologies, then the world’s largest Internet service provider (ISP); Senior International Counsel at MCI, then a Fortune 100 company; and a senior executive at two venture-backed technology companies. In the Executive Office of the President at the U.S. Trade Representative, Reback helped negotiate NAFTA, the World Trade Organization agreements, and several international technology agreements. Immediately prior to joining Akamai, he was Senior Technology Analyst and Director of Global Business at Bloomberg Government. Reback holds a B.A. in political science from Stanford University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.P.A. from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and was a Fulbright Fellow in London.

 

Tracey D. Samuelson

Reporter, Marketplace Radio

Tracey D. Samuelson is a staff reporter for APM Marketplace focusing on business, finance, and technology. Samuelson’s stories have aired on NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Planet Money, and APM’s Marketplace, and in print for the Christian Science Monitor, New York Magazine, Global Post and other publications.

8th Annual Conference on U.S.-China Economic Relations and China’s Economic Development

Click here to watch videos

The U.S.-China relationship is now second to none in importance for international economic relations and policy and accordingly is a major focus of IIEP. The centerpiece of this initiative is our annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic and Political Relations

This year, key topics discussed include China’s financial market, the state of China’s macro-economy, the China-Africa relationship, and China’s outward investments and their impacts. For more information about the conference and bios of each panelist, visit our blog

An archive of all previous Annual Conferences on U.S.-China Economic Relations and China’s Economic Development is available here. For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.

David Dollar

Keynote speaker: David Dollar

Senior Fellow on Foreign Policy and Global Economy and Development, the Brookings Institution

David Dollar is a leading expert on China’s economy and U.S.-China economic relations. From 2009 to 2013 he was the U.S. Treasury’s economic and financial emissary to China.

Dollar worked at the World Bank for 20 years, and from 2004 to 2009, was country director for China and Mongolia. His other World Bank assignments primarily focused on Asian economies, including South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, and India. From 1995 to 2004, Dollar worked in the World Bank’s research department.

Schedule of Events

October 6, 2017

8:50 – 9:00AM Welcome and Overview of the Conference

  • Stephen Smith, Director, Institute for International Economic Policy

9:00 – 10:30AM Session 1: The China-Africa Relationship

10:30 – 11:00AM Coffee Break

11:00 – 12:30PM Session 2: China’s Outward Investments and Their Impact

12:30 – 2:00PM Lunch and Keynote

  • David Dollar, Senior Fellow, Thornton China Center, Brookings Institution, “China’s Economic Slowdown and Spillover to the Rest of the World”

2:00 – 2:20PM Coffee Break

2:20 – 3:50PM Session 3: China’s Financial Market

  • Jennifer Carpenter, NYU Stern, “The Real Value of China’s Stock Market”
  • Jennie Bai, Georgetown University, “The Great Wall of Debt: Corruption, Real Estate, and Chinese Local Government Credit Spreads”
  • Dennis Tao Yang, UVA, “Booms and Busts in China’s Stock Market”

4:00 – 5:30PM Session 4: State of China’s Macro-economy

An archive of all previous Annual Conferences on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations is available here.

For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.

Co-sponsored by:

7th Annual Conference on U.S.-China Economic Relations and China’s Economic Development

G2 at GW 2014

Friday, November 21, 2014, 8:45 am

Lindner Commons, Suite 602
Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20052

The U.S.-China relationship is now second to none in importance for international economic relations and policy and accordingly is a major focus of IIEP. The centerpiece of this initiative is our annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic and Political Relations (or the “G2 at GW”), which as become one of the premier events of its type.  For information on previous conferences, see our signature initiatives page.

Schedule of Events

November 21, 2014

8:50 – 9:00AM Welcome and Overview of the Conference

9:00 – 10:30AM Session 1: Economic Issues in China

This session will examine economics of China’s domestic economy and linkages to the international economy via trade and investment.

  • Eswar Prasad, Cornell, “The International Role of the RMB”
  • Derek Scissors, American Enterprise Institute, “Two China Development Scenarios for Investment in the US”
  • Scott Kennedy, Indiana U., “Multinationals Surviving and Thriving in China”

View video

10:30 – 11:00AM Coffee Break

11:00 – 12:30PM Session 2: China’s Changing Political Landscape

This session will examine the new political environment in China as the new leadership attempts to maintain legitimacy in the midst of a slowing economy and the advance of new social media technologies.

  • Bruce Dickson, GWU, “Economic Growth and Political Trust”
  • Jessica Teets, Middlebury, “Civil Society and Consultative Authoritarianism in China”
  • Steve Balla, GWU, “The Internet, Governance, and Political Participation in China”

12:30 – 2:00PM Lunch and Keynote

  • Jianhai Lin, Secretary of the International Monetary Fund, “Changing Global Economic Landscape: a Renewed Need for Multilateralism.”

View video

2:00 – 2:20PM Coffee Break

2:20 – 3:50PM Session 3: Environmental Outcomes in China with Global Implications

 

An archive of all previous Annual Conferences on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations is available here.

For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.

Co-sponsored by:

6th Annual Conference on U.S.-China Economic Relations and China’s Economic Development

G2 at GW 2013

Friday, November 8, 2013

Lindner Commons, Suite 602
Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20052

Click here to watch videos

The U.S.-China relationship is now second to none in importance for international economic relations and policy and accordingly is a major focus of IIEP. The centerpiece of this initiative is our annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic and Political Relations (or the “G2 at GW”), which as become one of the premier events of its type.

Schedule of Events

November 8, 2013

8:50 – 9:00AM Welcome and Overview of the Conference

9:00 – 10:30AM Session 1: U.S. – China Trade: Jobs and Competition

Moderated by Michael Moore

  • Ann Harrison (University of Pennsylvania): Industrial Policy and Competition
  • Mary Lovely (Syracuse University): Trade Liberalization and Labor Shares in China
  • Peter Schott (Yale University): The Surprisingly Swift Decline of U.S. Manufacturing Employment

10:30 – 11:00AM Coffee Break

11:00 – 12:00PM Session 2: Multinational firms in the U.S. and China

12:00 – 1:30PM Lunch and Keynote

  • Steve Barnett (Division Chief-China, IMF) “China’s Economic Development: Past, Present, and Future”)

1:30-3:00PM Session 3: China’s Growth and Financial Liberalization

Moderated by Jay Shambaugh

3:00-3:30PM Coffee Break
 
3:30-4:30PM Session 4: China’s Economic and Political Development

Moderated by Stephen Smith

  • James Kung (HKUST): Do Land Revenue Windfalls Reduce the Career Incentives of County Leaders? Evidence from China
  • Yan Wang (GWU, Peking University, and former World Bank): China’s Role in International Development Financing: Past, Present, and Prospect.
    Dr. Yang published a joint paper in 2014 based on the ideas presented in this presentation; download the paper here.

An archive of all previous Annual Conferences on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations is available here.

For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.

Co-sponsored by: 

5th Annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and the U.S.-China Relationship

G2 at GW 2012

Friday, October 12, 2012

Lindner Commons, Suite 602
Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20052

Videos

The US – China relationship is now second to none in importance for international economic relations and policy and accordingly is a major focus of IIEP. The centerpiece of this initiative is our annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations (or the “G2 at GW”), which has become one of the premier events of its type. For the last three conferences (2009, 2010, 2011) we created a follow-up online “virtual conference volume”. For information on previous conferences, see our signature initiatives page.

Schedule of Events

October 12, 2012

8:15-8:45 AM Continental Breakfast

8:50-9:00 AM Welcome and Overview of the Conference

9:00-10:15 AM Session 1

10:15-10:30 AM Coffee Break

10:30 AM – 12:00 PM Session 2

12:00-1:00 PM Lunch Break

1:00-2:15 PM Session 3

2:15-2:30 PM Coffee Break

2:30-3:45 PM Session 4

An archive of all previous Annual Conferences on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations is available here.

For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.

Co-sponsored by:

4th Annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and the U.S.-China Relationship

G2 at GW 2011

Friday, September 23, 2011

Made possible by a generous gift from an anonymous donor

Lindner Commons, Suite 602
Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20052

The US – China relationship is now second to none in importance for international economic relations and policy and accordingly is a major focus of IIEP. The centerpiece of this initiative is our annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations (or the G2 at GW), which has become one of the premier events of its type. For the last three conferences (2009, 2010, and 2011) we created a follow-up online “virtual conference volume”.

Speakers at the first four conferences include Hongbin Li (Tsinghua University, Beijing), Shang-Jin Wei (Columbia Univ.), Lu Ming (Fudan Univ., Shanghai), ZhongXiang Zhang (East-West Center), Peter Yu (Drake), Huang Yasheng (MIT), Li Xuan (FAO), C. Fred Bergsten (Peterson), Loren Brandt (Toronto), Kenneth Lieberthal (Brookings), Zhang Xiaobo (IFPRI), Feng Tian (Chinese Academy for Social Sciences), Meng Lingsheng (Tsinghua), Gao Fei (China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU)), Harry Harding (Virginia), Lixin Colin Xu (World Bank), Zhu Caihua (CFAU), Warwick McKibbin (Australian National Univ., and Eswar Prasad (Brookings).

Next year’s G2 at GW conference will take place on 10-12-2012. The research and policy analysis presented at the first five G2 at GW conferences together form the basis of a planned IIEP volume, to be edited by Professors Michael Moore and Stephen C. Smith.

Schedule of Events

September 23, 2011

Continental breakfast at 8:00 AM

9-9:10 AM Welcome and Overview of the Conference

9:15-10:30 AM Economic Transformation in China

Panelists

10:30-10:45 AM Coffee Break

10:45 AM – 12:15 PM Climate Change, Multilateral Trade, and International Financial Rules

Panelists

12:15-1:15 PM Lunch Break

1:15-2:30 PM US and Chinese Policies Towards Intellectual Property Rights

Panelists

2:30-2:45 PM Coffee Break

2:45-4:00 PM Macro topics: Exchange Rates, Economic Growth, and Imbalances

Panelists

An archive of all previous Annual Conferences on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations is available here.

For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.

Co-sponsored by: 

3rd Annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and the U.S. – China Relationship

Friday, October 8, 2010

Made possible by a generous gift from an anonymous donor

Continental breakfast at 8:00 AM

8:45 AM: Welcome and Overview of the Conference 
Stephen C. Smith (Director, Institute for International Economic Policy, and Professor of Economics and International Affairs, GWU)

9:00-9:45 AM: Kenneth Lieberthal, Brookings Institute, “Necessary Strategic Adaptation by U.S. Multinationals to Succeed in China’s Evolving Business Environment”

9:45-11:00 AM: Economic Development Patterns in China
Moderator: Steve Suranovic, Associate Professor of Economics and International Affairs, GWU
Panelists:

Lu Ming, Fudan University, “Sustainable Growth or Not? Hukou, Land and Rural-Urban Development in China
Zhang Xiaobo, IFPRI, “Analysis of Industrial Clusters in China
Feng Tian, Chinese Academy for Social Sciences, “Trade Linkages of BRICs in the World Economy

11:00-11:15 AM: Coffee Break

11:15-12:30 PM: Political Economy of Development in China
Moderator: Jiawen Yang, Professor of International Business and International Affairs, GWU
Panelists:

Maggie Xiaoyang Chen, GWU, “Firm Performance and Investment in Political Human Capital
Bruce Reynolds, UVA, “A Macro Framework for Understanding the Exchange Rate Debate
Meng Lingsheng, Tsinghua University, “Prenatal Sex Selection and Missing Girls in China: Evidence from the Diffusion of Diagnostic Ultrasound

12:30-1:45 PM: Luncheon and Keynote by Huang Yasheng, MIT, “Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics

1:45-3:00 PM: Aspects of U.S.-China Economic Relations
Moderator: Michael Moore, Professor of Economics and International Affairs, GWU
Panelists:

Doug Guthrie, Dean, GWU School of Business, “Economic Development & U.S.-China Relations
Gao Fei, China Foreign Affairs University, “Chinese View on Contemporary Sino-US Relations: Challenge and Opportunity
Bruce Dickson, GWU, “China’s Evolving Economic Model and Its Implications for the US”

3:00-4:15 PM: China-Africa Links
Moderator: Fred Joutz, Professor of Economics, GWU
Panelists:

Deborah Brautigam, African Union, “Chinese Aid and Investment in Africa: Think Again
Joshua Eisenman, American Foreign Policy Council and UCLA, “China’s Trade and Political Engagement in Africa
Ambassador David Shinn , GWU, “China’s Security and Diplomatic Relations with Africa”

An archive of all previous Annual Conferences on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations is available here.

For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.

Co-sponsored by:

2nd Annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and the U.S. China-Relationship

Friday, November 20, 2009

Continental breakfast at 8:00 AM

9:00 AM: Welcome and Overview of the Conference

Stephen C. Smith (Director, Institute for International Economic Policy, and Professor of Economics and International Affairs, GW) Trends in China’s Development and U.S.-China Trade

9:15-10:00 AM: Opening address and charge to the conference

Dr. Harry Harding (Dean, University of Virginia, former Elliott School Dean, and former University Professor at GW) The G-2 Chimera: Fusion or Illusion? – Paper

10:00-10:30 AM: Coffee Break

10:30 AM – 12:30 PM: Session 1: Transformations and Emerging Challenges in the Economy of China

Bruce Reynolds (Professor of Economics, University of Virginia) Macro Problems and Macro Policy in China and the United States: Lessons from the Economic Crisis – PPT

Loren Brandt (Professor of Economics, University of Toronto) – PPT

John Giles (Associate Professor of Economics, Michigan State University, and Senior Labor Economist, World Bank) The Current and Future Well Being of China’s Rural Elderly – Paper and PPT

Dr. Xiaobo Zhang (Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute) The Competitive Savings Motive: Evidence from Rising Sex Ratios and Savings Rates in China – Paper and PPT and Transcript

Dr. Lixin Colin Xu (Senior Economist, World Bank)

12:30-1:00 PM: Lunch

1:00-1:45 PM: Luncheon Keynote Speaker

Dr. Fred Bergsten (Founder and Director, Peterson Institute of International Economics) – “The United States-China Economic Relationship and the Strategic and Economic Dialogue“. Paper – Two’s Company (Letter to the Editor of Foriegn Affairs Magazine) – Paper

1:45-2:00 PM: Coffee Break

2:00-4:00 PM: Session 2: Crisis, Emergence of the G2 relationship, and Future Challenges

Zhu Caihua (Associate Professor of International Economics, China Foreign Affairs University) FDI Flows Between China and the US: Implications for Sino-US Economic Relations – Paper 

Dr. Philip Levy (Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and former Senior Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers) The Sustainability of Chinese Economic Success: Implications for Future Sino-U.S. Relations

Margaret Pearson (Professor of Government and Politics, University of Maryland) China as a G2 Member: What are the Political Constraints? – Paper 

Bruce Dickson (Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, GW)

An archive of all previous Annual Conferences on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations is available here.

For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.

Co-sponsored by:

1st Annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and the U.S. China Relationship

Monday, October 20, 2008

 

Continental breakfast from 8:30 AM

9:30-10:45 AM: The U.S. and China in the World Economy 
This session will examine the global context of the relationship, including macroeconomic conditions and global energy markets.

Warwick McKibbin (Professor of Economics at Australian National University, Member of the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia and Nonresident Fellow at the Brookings Institution)

David Pumphrey (Deputy Director and Senior Fellow of the Energy and National Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Energy Cooperation at the Department of Energy)

Jiawen Yang (Professor of International Business and International Affairs at the George Washington University, co-author of Case Studies of U.S. Economic Sanctions: The Chinese, Cuban and Iranian Experience)

10:45-11:00 AM: Coffee break

11:00 AM – 12:30 PM: U.S. and China Trade and Investment Issues

This session will explore current controversies surrounding U.S. economic relations.

Jim Mendenhall (Partner at Sidley Austin, LLP and former General Counsel at Office of the U.S. Trade Representative)

Patrick Mulloy (Member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission and former Assistant Secretary of Commerce)

Eswar Prasad (Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy at Cornell University, Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution, Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and former Chief of the China Division at the International Monetary Fund).

12:30-1:45 PM: Lunch

2:00-3:15 PM: The Future of U.S.-China Relations

The final group of panelist will discuss the economic and political future of the two countries.

Albert Keidel (Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former Acting Director and Deputy Director for the Office of East Asian Nations at the U.S. Treasury Department)

Philip Levy (Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and former Senior Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers)

David Shambaugh (Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at The George Washington University, Director of the China Policy Program at the Elliott School of International Affairs, and Nonresident Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution).

An archive of all previous Annual Conferences on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations is available here.

For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.