The China Economy Program, together with RSFAS, successfully hosted Professor Xiaodong Zhu (Chair Professor and Area Head of Economics at HKU, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Toronto).
This seminar was successfully organised by the China Economy Program and the Research School of Finance, Actuarial Studies and Statistics and took place in person at the Lecture Theatre, CBE Building (Building 26C).
The paper investigated the role of bottom-up reforms in driving China's economic growth. Leveraging granular documentation from county-level gazetteers, the study identified local reform events from 1976 to 2005, capturing de facto policy innovations and their diffusion. The findings showed that bottom-up reforms primarily drove growth through productivity improvements, while centrally sponsored reforms operated mainly through capital accumulation. Evidence from firm entry and structural transformation further corroborated the productivity-enhancing effects of bottom-up reforms. Notably, these reforms were more likely to have originated in politically peripheral regions, and their diffusion was more driven by local conditions than by centrally sponsored reforms.
Speaker: Professor Xiaodong Zhu (University of Hong Kong)
Professor Xiaodong Zhu joined the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Hong Kong as a professor in 2022. Prior to that, he was a professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Toronto, where he taught for 30 years. He is a leading expert on the Chinese economy, and his research on China has been published in top economics journals such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Monetary Economics, International Economic Review, Journal of Development Economics, Review of Economic Dynamics, and Journal of Economic Perspectives.
This is an in-person seminar organised by the China Economy Program and the Research School of Finance, Actuarial Studies and Statistics, taking place at the Lecture Theatre, CBE Building (Building 26C).
Event Speakers
Professor Xiaodong Zhu
Professor Xiaodong Zhu joined the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Hong Kong as a professor in 2022. Prior to that, he was a professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Toronto, where he taught for 30 years. He is a leading expert on the Chinese economy and his research on China has been published in top economics journals.