3rd Annual Conference on
China and the Global Economy
May 12-13, 2025 | 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Location: HKU iCube
Organizer: HKU Business School
The “3rd Annual Conference on China and the Global Economy” will be held on May 12-13, 2025, at the HKU Business School. The annual conference is sponsored by the Institute of China Economy (ICE) at the HKU Business School. The objective of the conference is to create a forum to discuss new economic research on China and its relationship with the global economy.
Details are as follows:
Date and Time: | May 12, 2025 (Monday) 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. May 13, 2025 (Tuesday) 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. |
Venue: | HKU iCube, Room 4005-07, 40/F, Two Exchange Square, 8 Connaught Place, Central |
Language: | English |
*Registration: | Please register HERE by 11:59 p.m. May 7, 2025. There is no registration fee. Seats are limited. * Note: Successful registrants will receive a confirmation email prior to the event. |
*Remarks: | Lunch and dinner will be by invitation. Participants will be responsible to cover the passage and accommodation costs. |
The “3rd Annual Conference on China and the Global Economy” will be held on May 12-13, 2025, at the HKU Business School. The annual conference is sponsored by the Institute of China Economy (ICE) at the HKU Business School. The objective of the conference is to create a forum to discuss new economic research on China and its relationship with the global economy.
Details are as follows:
Date and Time: | May 12, 2025 (Monday) 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. May 13, 2025 (Tuesday) 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. |
Venue: | HKU iCube, Room 4005-07, 40/F, Two Exchange Square, 8 Connaught Place, Central |
Language: | English |
*Registration: | Please register HERE by 11:59 p.m. May 7, 2025. There is no registration fee. Seats are limited. * Note: Successful registrants will receive a confirmation email prior to the event. |
*Remarks: | Lunch and dinner will be by invitation. Participants will be responsible to cover the passage and accommodation costs. |
Top Global Scholars Gather at HKU to Chart China’s Role in a Shifting World Economy
3rd Annual Conference on China and the Global Economy Explores Trade Wars, Industrial Policy, and Geoeconomics Challenges
Hong Kong, May 21, 2025 – The Institute of China Economy (ICE) at HKU Business School successfully hosted its 3rd Annual Conference on China and the Global Economy from May 12–13, 2025, at iCube in Central Hong Kong. The event convened over 100 scholars, policymakers, and industry leaders from 15 countries to address pressing challenges in global economic governance, with a focus on China’s evolving strategic role in an era of geopolitical fragmentation and technological rivalry.
Event Highlights
Keynote Insights
Vivian Yue (Emory University) – “A Theory of International Official Lending”
Official lending by governments and multilateral institutions has emerged as a critical tool for crisis response, exemplified by China’s rise as a leading global creditor. Yue’s framework revealed how strategic alignment of debt allocation can enhance welfare in developing economies, though reforms are needed to address imbalances in multilateral governance.
Gerard Padro Miquel (Yale University) – “Ambiguous Attribution and Accountability”
Drawing from a 2023 Spanish election experiment, Padro Miquel demonstrated that institutional ambiguity fuels partisan biases, undermining democratic accountability. Clearer responsibility attribution and actor-specific data are essential to depolarize policymaking and restore public trust.
Breakthrough Research
- Trade Wars & Sanctions
Yang Jiao (SMU) showed that Western financial sanctions (e.g., SWIFT exclusion) reduced Russia’s trade with both Western and non-Western nations, but alternative payment systems (e.g., China’s CIPS) softened the blow in non-aligned economies.
Johannes Van Biesebroeck (KU Leuven) found U.S. sanctions caused a 2% permanent market value loss for targeted Chinese firms, though operational resilience and selective government support mitigated long-term impacts.
Xiao Ma (PHBS) linked the U.S.-China trade war to a 28% decline in patent similarity between the two nations, as tariffs redirected Chinese R&D toward domestic and alternative markets.
- Industrial Policy & Domestic Reforms
Harry Li (HKU) exposed hidden costs of China’s industrial subsidies: WTO-permitted retaliatory tariffs offset 22% of sales gains, urging recalibration of state support strategies.
Loren Brandt (U of Toronto) mapped geographic disparities in China’s steel industry, revealing how local protectionism and ownership barriers hinder restructuring despite overcapacity.
Chen Ting (HKBU) analyzed land reforms’ gendered impacts: rural women transitioned out of agriculture, while urban women faced widening wage gaps, underscoring uneven policy outcomes.
- Migration, Housing & Growth
Zhang Rui (Sun Yat-Sen U)demonstrated that remittances (24% of migrants’ income) alleviate trade-induced inequality, but region-specific “friendliness” metrics are vital to equitable policy design.
Wang Wen (HKUST) warned that housing subdivision, while boosting affordability, risks displacing low-income tenants unless paired with targeted zoning and amenity investments.
Wen Yao (Tsinghua) redefined China’s growth through a neoclassical model, attributing post-2009 slowdowns to institutional inefficiencies rather than pure economic factors.
Global Impact & Policy Relevance
The conference underscored three critical themes:
- Geoeconomic Fragmentation: Sanctions and trade wars are reshaping global networks, with non-Western financial systems (e.g., RMB, CIPS) gaining strategic traction.
- Domestic-International Nexus: China’s industrial and migration policies have ripple effects on global trade, inequality, and institutional accountability.
- Data-Driven Governance: Novel metrics—from patent similarity indices to regional “friendliness” scores—are essential to decode complex economic interactions.
About the Organizer
The Institute of China Economy (ICE) at HKU Business School is a leading research hub dedicated to advancing rigorous analysis of China’s economic development and its global implications. Through conferences, policy briefs, and cross-sector collaboration, ICE bridges academia, governments, and industry to foster evidence-based dialogue.
Samuel C. Park Jr (B.A. 1925) Professor of Economics and Political Science
Yale University
Bio
Gerard Padró i Miquel is a Professor of Economics and Political Science at Yale University, where he is also the Director of the Leitner Program of International and Comparative Political Economy. He is interested in the interplay between politics and economics as a barrier for development with a focus on civil conflict and on the politics of non-democratic regimes. His previous work has been published at the Quarterly Journal of Economics, American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies and the Quarterly Journal of Political Science among others.
Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Economics
Emory University
Bio
Vivian Zhanwei Yue is a Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics, Emory University. She is also Research Associate at the NBER, Research Fellow at CEPR, and a senior research fellow at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Before joining Emory University, Professor Yue worked as an assistant professor at New York University and an economist at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Her research areas are on international finance, macroeconomics, and international trade. She has published in leading academic journals such as American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Finance, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Monetary Economics, and Journal of Econometrics. She has served as Co-Editor for Journal of International Economics, associate editor for Journal of Monetary Economics, International Economic Review, IMF Economic Review, and on the Board of Editors for American Economic Journal- Macroeconomics.
Professor Gerard Padró i Miquel
Samuel C. Park Jr (B.A. 1925) Professor of Economics and Political Science
Yale University
Professor Vivian Yue
Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Economics
Emory University
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Day 1: May 8, 2023 (Monday) – Applied Micro
08:15 – 08:50
Registration
08:50 – 09:00
Welcome Speech by Professor Hongbin Cai, Dean of HKU Business School
09:00 – 10:00
Keynote Speech by Professor Michael Greenstone (via Zoom), University of Chicago
“Can Pollution Markets Work in Developing Countries? Experimental Evidence from India”
10:00 – 10:20
Coffee Break and Group Photo
Session 1: Environment
10:20 – 11:10
Yu-Hsiang Lei, Yale-NUS College
“Dams, International Rivers and Climate Change: The Impacts of Chinese Dams on the Mekong River”
11:10 – 12:00
Aaron Yoon, Northwestern University
“Green financing and politicians’ incentives: Evidence from proprietary loan assessment data”
joint with Meng Lyu, George Y. Yang, Hongqi Yuan
Hongbin CAI
Chair of organizing committee
Dean
Chair of Economics
HKU Business School
Bingjing LI
Associate Professor of Economics
HKU Business School
Professor of Economics and Management & Strategy
HKU Business School
HKU Business School
Yanhui WU
Professor of Economics and Management & Strategy
HKU Business School
Hongsong ZHANG
Associate Professor of Economics
HKU Business School
Xiaodong ZHU
Area Head of Economics
Professor of Economics
HKU Business School
Please contact the Institute of China Economy at iceinfo@hku.hk for enquiries.