Speaker:

Professor Yao Yang
Liberal Arts Chair Professor, China Centre for Economic Research,
National School of Development, Peking University, China

Moderator:

Professor Bert Hofman
Director, East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore

Date & Time:

Thursday, 26 October 2023
5:15 pm – 6:30 pm

Venue:

Seminar Room 3-1, Manasseh Meyer Building
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS Bukit Timah Campus
469C Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 259772

Video recording:

Abstract:

China’s economy has shown signs of difficulty. Prices are falling, private investment is not growing, corporate sales have stagnated. Many international observers believe that China is going down a road of long-term recession. However, that view does not square with the fact that China is leading the world’s technological and production frontiers in several key sectors, including artificial intelligence, alternative energy and electric vehicles. China’s slowdown is not structural, but a result of the government’s intentional moves to correct some of the problems that the authorities believe are incongruent with the country’s future, including corruption, over-marketisation in some areas, heavy debts and an over-developed real estate market. The slowdown is a willing price that the government would like to pay. The Chinese economy will be on track once the corrections are completed.

About the Speaker:

Yao Yang is a Liberal Arts Chair Professor at the China Centre for Economic Research (CCER) and the National School of Development (NSD), Peking University. He currently serves as the director of CCER, the dean of NSD, executive dean of the ISSCAD and editor of CCER’s house journal China Economic Quarterly. He serves as the chairman of China Economic Annual Meetings and chairman of the Foundation of Modern Economics. He is a member of China Economist 50 Forum. His research interests include economic transition and development in China. He has published more than a hundred research papers in international and domestic journals including China Social Sciences, American Economic Review and American Political Science Review. He publishes or edits a dozen of books on institutional economics, political economy and economic development in China. He is also a prolific writer for magazines and newspapers, including the Financial Times and the Project Syndicate.

Dr Yao was awarded the 2008 and 2014 Sun Yefang Award in Economic Science, the 2008 and 2010 Pu Shan Award in International Economics and the 2008 Zhang Peigang Award in Development Economics; he was also named the Best Teacher by the PKU Student Union in 2006 and Best Adviser by the PKU Graduate Students Union in 2017.

Dr Yao obtained a BS in geography in 1986 and an MS in economics in 1989, both from Peking University, and his PhD in development economics from the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1996.