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Shang-Jin Wei | Beyond Industrial and Trade Policies: Rethinking Causes of China’s Current Account Surpluses

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Lecture

Mon, Mar 23, 2026

4:30 PM – 6 PM EDT (GMT-4)

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Louis A. Simpson International Building, Room A71

Princeton, NJ 08544, United States

Details

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While many of China’s industrial and trade policies generate distortions and sector-level trade imbalances, their roles in the country’s aggregate trade or current account surplus may be more limited. In comparison, many domestic structural factors, particularly a sex ratio imbalance and a distorted domestic financial system, may have played a more significant role in the country’s external imbalances than international organizations or popular discussion have paid attention to. This has implications for effective strategies in reducing the external imbalances.

Where

Louis A. Simpson International Building, Room A71

Princeton, NJ 08544, United States

Speakers

Shang-Jin Wei's profile photo

Shang-Jin Wei

N.T. Wang Professor of Chinese Business and Economy and Professor of Finance and Economics

Columbia University

Dr. Shang-Jin Wei is the N.T. Wang Professor of Chinese Business and Economy and Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia University. A leading scholar in international finance, trade, and the Chinese economy, he previously served as Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank (2014–2016), where he advised the President and led the institution’s research on macroeconomic, financial, and regional cooperation issues across Asia.



Before joining Columbia, Dr. Wei held senior positions at the International Monetary Fund, including Assistant Director and Chief of the Trade and Investment Division, and served as the IMF’s Chief of Mission to Myanmar. He has also taught at Harvard University and held appointments at the Brookings Institution and the World Bank.



His research has been published in top journals such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, and Journal of Finance, and he is a recipient of multiple prestigious international economics awards.


Sponsors

Paul and Marcia Wythes Center on Contemporary China. No image description provided

Hosted By

Center on Contemporary China | View More Events
Co-hosted with: Princeton Institute for International & Regional Studies, Center on Contemporary China (OWNER)