Justin Yifu Lin, the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank, will deliver the Leonard D. White Memorial Lecture in Political Science at noon on Friday, Jan. 6, in Assembly Hall at International House. He will be discussing his new book, Demystifying the Chinese Economy.
The event is free and open to the public and is part of a Global Voices Program co-sponsored by International House and the Department of Political Science.
Lin resided in International House while studying economics at UChicago, before receiving his PhD in 1986. He has been Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank since 2008. In those positions, he plays a key role in shaping the World Bank’s economic agenda.
Prior to joining the bank, Lin served for 15 years as founding director and professor of the China Centre for Economic Research (CCER) at Peking University.
He is the author of 18 books, including The China Miracle: Development Strategy and Economic Reform and Economic Development and Transition: Thought, Strategy, and Viability.
Lin was a deputy of China’s People’s Congress, vice chairman of the Committee for Economic Affairs of Chinese People’s Political Consultation Conference and vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce. He served on several national and international committees, leading groups, and councils on development policy, technology and environment, including the UN Millennium Task Force on Hunger; the Eminent Persons Group of the Asian Development Bank; the National Committee on United States-China Relations; the Global Agenda Council on the International Monetary System; Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee; and the Hong Kong-U.S. Business Council.
He was awarded the 1993 and 2001 Sun Yefang Prize, the highest honor for economists in China. In 2011, he received a Professional Achievement Award from the UChicago Alumni Association. He also is a fellow of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World and a corresponding fellow of the British Academy.
In his book Demystifying the Chinese Economy, Lin looks at the impact of introduced market-oriented reforms in 1979. Since its resurgence, China has had one of the world’s most dynamic economies. The book explores the lessons of the Chinese experience and their potential to provide guidance for other developing countries.
—Prof. Jacqueline Stewart
