The Emergence of China in the Global Economy
SPEAKER: Lester Thurow Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Professor of Economics and Management
The Emergence of ABOUT THE LECTURE: China in the Global Napoleon admonished the world to beware an awakened Economy China. 200 years later, Lester Thurow traces the astonishing Lester Thurow rise of this economic giant. In contrast to Russia, says Thurow, June 5, 2004 China solved the problem of moving from communism to 2:00 PM capitalism in less than two decades. Starting in 1978, Chinese leaders ended communes and gave hectares of land to Time 00:57:13 industrious peasants. Leaders also tested private enterprise in a succession of cities. By the mid 1990s, “the time had come to Audio Only: play the international game,” says Thurow. China sought QuickTime – 17MB technology and foreign investment. But “how do you sell a MP3 - 41MB country”? According to Thurow, China decided, “We’re the Audio and Video: cheapest place to make everything.” Foreign firms flooded in, QuickTime - 213MB selling equipment to China, or making products there and WindowsMedia - 176MB selling them back to the developed world. But now there are RealVideo - 94MB problems: China has no regulations for maintaining intellectual property rights, so Chinese companies pirate Western technology and products with impunity, and undersell the foreign firms that have invested in them. Also, Thurow believes tales of China’s phenomenal growth are often just that – fictions sold by bureaucrats to rate a promotion. “China is a great success but it’s not growing at 9 to 10% a year.” Finally, divisions between prosperous cities and stagnant rural areas threaten long-term stability in the People’s Republic.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Lester Thurow has advised presidents and informed the American public on such critical issues as deficit reduction and unemployment for more than 30 years. He has been an economics columnist for many national and international publications including The New York Times, The Boston Globe,
From mitworld.mit.edu/video/220/ 1 24 November 2005 Newsweek, and Nikkei Business Japan, and published numerous best-selling books, of which Fortune Favors the Bold (HarperBusiness, 2003) is the latest.
Thurow is Coordinator of MIT Asia-Pacific Initiatives, and Chairman of both the Technion Institute of Management and The Lemelson-MIT Awards Program. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in 1962, where he received his M.A. and took first class honors in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. In 1964, he received a Ph.D.in Economics from Harvard University. NOTES ON THE VIDEO (Time Index): Video length is 57:15.
Sean E. Brown, Director of MIT Sloan Alumni Relations, introduces Lester Thurow.
Thurow begins at 1:12.
Q&A begins at 40:00.
From mitworld.mit.edu/video/220/ 2 24 November 2005 Lester Carl Thurow
Present Status: Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Professor of Management and Economics, Sloan School of Management, MIT Former Dean of Sloan School of Management - 1987-93 Coordinator of MIT Asia-Pacific Initiatives Chairman of the Technion Institute of Management Chairman of The Lemelson - MIT Awards Program
Date and Place of Birth: May 7, l938 Livingston, Montana
Educational Background: Williams College B.A. in Political Economy, l960 Oxford University M.A. with first class honors in Philosophy, (Balliol College) Politics, and Economics, 1962 Harvard University Ph.D. in Economics, l964
Awards: Williams College: Tyng Scholar, Junior Phi Beta Kappa Oxford University: Rhodes Scholar 1962 Harvard University: Graduate National Fellowship, Wells Prize Time Magazine: one of "200 Rising Leaders," July l5, l974 Gerald Loeb Award for Economic Writing, l982 The 1983 Champion Media Awards, First Place Award - Syndicate Columnists Fellow: American Academy of Arts and Sciences, l984 12 Honorary Degrees
Relevant Work Experience: Assistant Professor of Economics, Harvard University, 1965-68 Assoc. Prof. of Economics and Management, MIT 1968 Professor of Economics and Management, MIT 1970- Visiting Professor, University of Arizona, 1975 and 1980 Staff Economist, President's Council of Economic Advisers, 1964-65 Presidential Appointee, National Commission for Manpower Policy, 1978-79 NAACP Economic Advisory Council, 1978-80 Economics Commentator, WGBH TV-2, Boston, 1968-75 Editorial Board, 1979, Economics columnist 1980-81, New York Times Contributing Editor: Newsweek 1981-83 Vice President: American Economics Association 1993 Dean, Sloan School of Management, MIT 1987-1993
Economics Columnist:
Al Bayan Press, United Arab Republic Az-Zamen, Kuwait Basler Zeitung, Switzerland Boston Globe Nightly Business Report TV Nikkei Business, Japan USA TODAY
From mitworld.mit.edu/video/220/ 3 24 November 2005 Current Board of Directors: Analog Devices, Inc. 1988 Grupo Casa Autrey 1994 E*Trade 1996
Selected Publications
Books:
Building Wealth: New Rules for National, Companies, and Individuals in a Knowledge-Based Economy. Harper Collins, June 1999.
Japan's Economic Recovery. TBS-Britannica. Japan, 1998
The Age of Economic Exploration. Tachiban, Japan 1997; Korea 1999
The Future of Capitalism: How Today's Economic Forces Shape Tomorrow's World. NY: Wm. Morrow & Co., March 1996.
Head to Head: The Coming Economic Battle Among Japan, Europe, and America. NY: Wm. Morrow & Co., April 1992.
The Zero-Sum Solution: Building a World-Class American Economy. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1985.
Dangerous Currents: The State of Economics. NY: Random House, 1983; also published in United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Serbo-Croat and Japan.
The Zero-Sum Society: Redistribution and the Possibilities for Economic Change. NY: Basic Books, 1980.
Generating Inequality: The Distributional Mechanisms of the Economy. NY: Basic Books 1975. Subject of Review Symposium: Social Science Quarterly, June 1977. Italian translation 1982, Japanese 1984.
American Distribution of Income: A Structural Problem. Staff Report Joint Economic Committee, 1972 with Robert Lucas.
The Impact of Taxes on the American Economy. NY: Praeger, 1971.
Investment in Human Capital. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1970.
Poverty and Discrimination. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1969. Received David A.Wells Prize from Harvard in 1968.
Recent Academic Articles:
1998
From mitworld.mit.edu/video/220/ 4 24 November 2005 "The Information Revolution and the Global Economy" in The Information Revolution and the Arab World. Its Impact on State Society. United Arab Emirates
"Wage Dispersion: "Who Done It?" Journal of Post Keynesian Economic, Fall 1998.
"Industrial Flexibility and European Unemployment," ISEO. October 1998.
1997
"Needed: A New System of Intellectual Property Rights," Harvard Business Review, September/October, 1997.
"New Rules: The American Economy in the Next Century," Harvard International Review, Winter. 1997/1998.
From mitworld.mit.edu/video/220/ 5 24 November 2005