A talk by Professor Yao Yang, China Center for Economic Research, Beijing University & ICI Fellow.

In the last 30 years, China has reached high economic growth and successfully transformed itself from a planning economy to a market economy. To a large extent, China has achieved its successes by adopting the recommendations proposed by the standard economic theory. However, a political economy question has been left out in the literature: Why has China adopted the right economic policies and a proper road to reform? This talk attempts to provide an answer to this question.

Discussion Moderated by: Jianying Zha, ICI Representative in China & author.

Dr. Yao obtained his B.S. in geography in 1986 and M.S. of Economics in 1989 both from Peking University. He obtained his Ph.D. in Development Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996. Dr. Yao has been following issues of land acquisition, ownership transformation, and migration in China for the past decade. Yao has taught economics at various institutions in China, Japan, and the United States. In addition, he has served as a consultant to the World Bank and participated in numerous contemporary debates about China’s economic reform. Yao writes widely in the popular and academic in China and is a respected authority on rural development