ASIA OVER LUNCH LECTURE – Noon in 4130 Posvar. Please feel free to join us for this lecture – all are welcome to bring their lunch or a snack along if you wish and enjoy! Please note that during the fall term, this series will be held on Wednesdays. In spring term, it will return to its usual Thursday schedule. Everyone is welcome to attend.

New research shows that the origin of China’s current economic boom depended heavily on historic legacies of entrepreneurship and other human capabilities. This destroys earlier views that blamed domestic social structures for China’s slow response to opportunities arising from the British industrial revolution. It also raises a new question: what delayed China’s economic surge until the 1980s? It is easy to understand the absence of high-speed growth during the Mao Zedong era and during the turbulent period between 1912 and 1949. But what held the economy in check during 1870-1910, decades in which China benefited from political stability, free trade, a full market system, substantial inflows of technology, and a weak government modestly inclined toward reform, plus the added stimulus of recovery from the Taiping wars? The answer focuses on institutional features of Qing political economy that obstructed growth during the 19th century and faded slowly after 1900. Removal of institutional constraints inherited from Qing and new anti-growth structures installed under the People’s Republic launched China’s economy onto its current dynamic growth path.