Stephen Y CHIU
Dr. Stephen Y CHIU
Economics
Honorary Associate Professor

3917 1026

KK 306

Academic & Professional Qualification
  • Ph.D., M.A., The Pennsylvania State University
  • B.S., University of London
  • Honors Diploma, Hong Kong Baptist College
Biography

Dr. Stephen Y CHIU received his undergraduate education in Physics at the Hong Kong Baptist College, and graduate education in Economics at the Pennsylvania State University, where he obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1995.  He had since taught at The Chinese University of Hong Kong until he joined The University of Hong Kong in 2002.  He has been the principal investigator of seven competitive earmarked grants, and was a Research Fellow in the Hong Kong Institute of Monetary Research during the summer of 2001.

Steve is a theorist and has written papers in different areas of Economics.  He likes models in which decision makers have non-negligible effects on the environment where they situate. He has published a few papers on bargaining.  In one paper, the widely used solution concept Shapley value is implemented as the unique outcome in a non-cooperative game under the least restrictive conditions.  Two other papers clear up the profession’s confusion on two concepts in bargaining theory — threat point and outside option, providing important insights into the implications of the now influential property rights approach of firm theory.  He has also written papers on the micro-foundations of currency crisis, examining the issue of multiple equilibria in more realistic models of currency attacks.  More recently, he has worked on problems such as contract design, college admissions, and demography and political economy of reform, motivated by a contrast between China and Russia in their demography and reform experience.

For leisure, Steve enjoys hiking, reading and tai chi.

Research Interest
  • Contracts and Organizations
  • Applied Theory
  • Political Economy
Selected Publications
  • “Task Interdependence and Non-Contractibility in Public Good Provision,”
    (with Bin R. Chen), Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, vol 170(4), 2014, pp. 731-748.
  • “Interim Performance Evaluation in Contract Design,”
    (with Bin R. Chen), Economic Journal, vol 123, issue 569, June 2013, pp. 665-698.
  • “Conglomerate Merger Control: From the Continents to a Small Economy,”
    (with Jessie Xinyu Wang), Frontiers on Law in China, vol. 8 (2), June 2013, pp. 304-334.
  • “Bargaining, Competition, and Efficient Investment,”
    (with Kalyan Chatterjee), Bargaining in the Shadow of the Market: Selected Papers in Bilateral and Multilateral Bargaining, (pp. 79-96), edited by Kalyan Chatterjee, World Scientific Press, 2013.
  • “Competitive Bidding with a Price Floor,”
    (with Bin R. Chen), International Journal of Economic Theory, vol 7(4), December 2011.
  • “To What Extent Defining a Group Predicates on Defining Other Groups?”
    (with Weifeng Zhong), Procedia-Social and Behavioral Science Journal (Elsevier), vol. 30, 2011, pp. 1672-1682.
  • “Public-Private Partnerships: Task Interdependence and Contractibility”
    (with Bin R. Chen), International Journal of Industrial Organization, vol 28 (6), 2010, pp. 591-603. (int contribution: III.8)
  • Game Theory and Economic Modeling,
    (in Chinese, with Pu Yongjian), the Renmin University Press, 2010.
  • “Endogenous Preferential Treatment in Centralized Admissions”
    (with Weiwei Weng), Rand Journal of Economics, 40(2), Summer 2009, 258-282.(int contributions: III.1)
  • “When Does Competition Lead to Efficient Investments?”
    (with Kalyan Chatterjee), The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, vol. 7 : 2007, Iss. 1 (Topics), Article 27.
  • “Noncooperative Bargaining, Hostages, and Optimal Assets Ownership,”
    American Economic Review, 88(4), September 1998, pp. 882-901
Recent Publications
Insights from Studies on Italian Opera, Policing, and the Slave Trade

小班教學可否有效提升學生的學習表現?教育程度較高會否提高學生的未來收入?增加警察人數能否降低犯罪率?這些都是政策制定者關心的問題。要回答這些問題,一般會收集數據,研究兩個變數(學生人數、學生成績)之間的關係。

Insights from Studies on Italian Opera, Policing, and the Slave Trade

When economists conduct research on certain topics, they often face challenges in collecting data from real-life situations, that meet the ideal conditions of a randomised controlled experiment. However, if randomised controlled groups exist in real-world scenarios, they would present valuable opportunities for study. Many hypotheses, such as the idea that intellectual property laws boost the opera industry can be proved in such analysis.

Know Thyself!

我們習慣認為自己的行為是理性、合乎邏輯,而且是經深思熟慮的,但現實上,我們的行為往往是「不經大腦」的,有許多盲點,甚至受到誤導和操縱而不自知。

Know Thyself!

我們習慣認為自己的行為是理性、合乎邏輯,而且是經深思熟慮的,但現實上,我們的行為往往是「不經大腦」的,有許多盲點,甚至受到誤導和操縱而不自知。

All theory might not be grey, but the golden tree of actual life springs ever green

前不久香港發生一宗命案,其駭人聽聞程度不下於任何經典驚慄片。才華滿溢、資金豐厚的電影製作人,不論如何絞盡腦汁,其創作不見得一定比真實世界奇異精采,很多時反而是從現實世界中找尋獨特的元素,經整理鋪陳後呈現於觀眾眼前。觀眾覺得可觀,往往因為不曾經歷的新鮮感而已,其實現實世界才是電影精采情節的泉源。經濟學家提出各種經濟理論,其貢獻在相當程度上也源於自身的實際經驗,或事後對實際經驗的總結。本文將分享一些現實生活的例子,以及經濟學家所作的檢視。

All theory might not be grey, but the golden tree of actual life springs ever green

前不久香港發生一宗命案,其駭人聽聞程度不下於任何經典驚慄片。才華滿溢、資金豐厚的電影製作人,不論如何絞盡腦汁,其創作不見得一定比真實世界奇異精采,很多時反而是從現實世界中找尋獨特的元素,經整理鋪陳後呈現於觀眾眼前。觀眾覺得可觀,往往因為不曾經歷的新鮮感而已,其實現實世界才是電影精采情節的泉源。經濟學家提出各種經濟理論,其貢獻在相當程度上也源於自身的實際經驗,或事後對實際經驗的總結。本文將分享一些現實生活的例子,以及經濟學家所作的檢視。

The Energy Revolution in China

人類社會正處於十九世紀以來的第三次能源轉型。第一次能源轉型,是指植物能轉為燃煤發電;第二次是指以化石燃料取代煤炭;至於目前的第三次轉型,是指以可再生的潔淨能源,來取代污染性較高的化石能源,使其成為人類社會的主要能源。

The Energy Revolution in China

人類社會正處於十九世紀以來的第三次能源轉型。第一次能源轉型,是指植物能轉為燃煤發電;第二次是指以化石燃料取代煤炭;至於目前的第三次轉型,是指以可再生的潔淨能源,來取代污染性較高的化石能源,使其成為人類社會的主要能源。

Analysing Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax

過去一年,油價升勢不止。繼歐洲聯盟委員會於3月8日建議各國政府可就能源企業的收入進行徵稅後,美國國會上月推動對石油巨企開徵「石油暴利稅」(Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax),總統經濟顧問Bharat Ramamurti提出應考慮徵收此稅的建議,拜登更公開批評埃克森美孚「今年賺錢多過上帝」(made more money than God this year)。

Analysing Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax

過去一年,油價升勢不止。繼歐洲聯盟委員會於3月8日建議各國政府可就能源企業的收入進行徵稅後,美國國會上月推動對石油巨企開徵「石油暴利稅」(Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax),總統經濟顧問Bharat Ramamurti提出應考慮徵收此稅的建議,拜登更公開批評埃克森美孚「今年賺錢多過上帝」(made more money than God this year)。