The second lecture in the series Rising China: Past Reforms, Current Challenges, and New Directions
Presented by Lixin Colin Xu, Professor of Economics, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business

“Institutional Explanations for China’s Performance in the Absence of Formal Protection of Property Rights”

After several decades of extraordinary economic growth since the reforms began in 1978, China has lost its momentum in recent years. In this talk, Xu explains how China managed to achieve great success in several decades despite the lack of formal property rights protection.  Contributing factors include regional competition, China’s strong bureaucracy, the alliance between local governments and businesses, the protection of property rights in firm-to-firm transactions, and an increase in interregional factor mobility. Xu also will illustrate the ways in which China's long history sheds light on its future development trajectory.

After a quarter century of work at the World Bank (culminating in his position as lead economist with the Development Research Group), Lixin Colin Xu is now a professor of economics at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, China’s first privately-funded and research-driven business school. An authority on firms in China and around the world, Xu has done extensive research on China’s transition, the role of the business environment in firm performance, and how history shapes current economic performance. He has published widely and his research has been featured in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The Straits Times, Sina Finance & Economy, and Barron’s. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago and his MA and BA from Peking University.

Free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Walter Krause Economics Lecture Fund and the Reed College economics department.