Shang-Jin Wei

Shang-Jin Wei, a former chief economist of the Asian Development Bank, is Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia University.

A reality check for the renminbi

It seems that the internationalisation of the renminbi is well underway.

1y ago

Can China Save Its Economic Miracle?

To improve medium-term growth, China must heed the lessons of its own history and focus on removing barriers to market entry and entrepreneurship. An economy’s growth rate comes from a combination of an increase in the average size of existing firms (intensive-margin growth) and an increase in the number of firms (extensive-margin growth). A study of the Chinese manufacturing sector that I co-authored with Xiaobo Zhang suggests that during the last few decades, extensive-margin growth accounted for about 70 percent of overall GDP expansion.

1y ago

Liz Truss vs the Bank of England

Unless Truss reverses more of the tax cuts or introduces policies to protect pensioners and mortgage borrowers, turmoil in the UK market will not end soon.

2y ago

Why is China’s growth rate falling so fast?

In early 2021, the consensus forecast for Chinese GDP growth this year among 25 major global banks and other professional forecasters was 8.3 percent.

3y ago

How to Make Climate Pledges Stick

China’s pledge in September to pursue carbon neutrality by 2060 was followed by a similar pledge from Japan a month later.

3y ago

Will the coronavirus cause a major growth slowdown in China?

The panic generated by the new coronavirus, 2019-nCov, which originated in Wuhan, one of China’s largest cities and a major domestic transport hub, reminds many of the fear and uncertainty at the peak of the 2003 SARS crisis.

4y ago

How to revive the WTO

December 11, 2019, was the 18th anniversary of China’s accession to the World Trade Organisation. It also marks the start of an era in which the WTO no longer has a functioning appellate body to adjudicate trade disputes among member countries. Why is the WTO imploding, and can it be resuscitated before it’s too late?

4y ago

Anti-globalisation bias and public policy

Oppone-nts of globa-lisation constantly point to the uneven impact of open trade. Although trade liberalisation can make the overall economic pie bigger, not everyone gets a larger slice

5y ago
October 20, 2017
October 20, 2017

The economic case for China's Belt and Road

Since 2013, China has been pursuing its “Belt and Road” initiative, which aims to develop physical infrastructure and policy linkages connecting more than 60 countries across Asia, Europe, and Africa.

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