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The Mandarin Model of Growth

2024-09-20

Time: 10:00 am- 11:30 am, Sept. 20th, 2024

Speaker: Zheng Song

(Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Venue: 1F, Wanzhong Building, Langrun Garden, Peking University

Platform: Zoom

Meeting ID: 994 5991 6531

Passcode: inse

 

Abstract:

In China's hybrid economy, the central authority uses economic performance evaluations to influence local officials' career advancements. These career incentives can spur growth when local governments are debt-constrained but may lead to short-termism, excessive leverage, and crowding out of private capital when debt constraints are lax. We develop "institutional accounting" to derive parameters characterizing the Mandarin system and perform counterfactuals to study their effects. Our findings suggest that the career incentives play a key role in delivering fast economic growth in the pre-2008 period and controlling local government debt significantly contribute to sustained economic growth in the post-2008 period. The overall welfare implications of the Mandarin system remain ambiguous. 

 

Speaker:

 

 

Zheng (Michael) SONG is Wei Lun Professor of Economics and the Department Head at the Department of Economics, Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and a Senior Fellow of Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research (ABFER). His research focuses on Chinese economy and macroeconomics. His papers were published by leading academic journals including American Economic Review, Econometrica and Journal of Political Economy. He won Sunyefang Economic Science Award in 2013. He is an Associate Editor of Econometrica, Journal of International Economics, and Review of Finance. He is a Co-Director of CUHK-Tsinghua Joint Research Center for Chinese Economy, a Co-Director of CUHK-Zhejiang University Joint Research Center for Digital Economy, a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University and Zhejiang University, and special-term professor at Peking University. He sits on Business Studies Panel of Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (RGC). He is a Currency Board Sub-Committee member of the Hong Kong Exchange Fund Advisory Committee. He is also an academic advisor to Hong Kong Institute for Monetary and Financial Research.