OXFORD, Miss. – While China experienced an explosive economic growth in the late 1980s, it seems the nation did not escape the growing inequality of income that has led to staggering poverty there in the past couple of decades, a noted economist says.
Carl Riskin, author of “China’s Political Economy: The Quest for Development since 1949” (Oxford University Press, 1987) and other interpretive economic histories of China, lectures on the nation’s economic imbalance Feb. 16 at the University of Mississippi.
The discussion of “Obstacles to a Harmonious Society in China: Poverty, Inequality and Economic Imbalance” is part of the spring 2012 Visiting Speaker Series sponsored by the Croft Institute for International Studies and the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. The free, public lecture starts at 7 p.m. at Croft, Room 107.
“Given our own economic problems and inequality here in the U.S. and Mississippi, it may be of interest to students to learn about how different parts of the world are addressing similar challenges,” said Joshua Howard, Croft associate professor of history who coordinated Riskin’s visit.
“Dr. Riskin is one of the leading authorities on poverty, economic development and inequality in contemporary China. In the news, China is often portrayed as a rising economic power epitomized by the skyscrapers and neon lights of Shanghai. In reality there are many ‘Chinas’ with huge gaps between city and countryside, the coast and hinterland.”
Riskin will also examine China’s inequalities as well as some of the government’s policies to address rising inequality amidst the global recession in recent years, Howard said.
Riskin said he is pleased to “talk about the links that are often neglected or missed altogether between inequality, poverty and the imbalances in China’s economy.”
“In recent years, I’ve been studying China’s huge stimulus program, which is aimed at ‘harmonious development’; that is, reducing regional disparities, environmental destruction and the nation’s overreliance on exports,” Riskin said. “The big question now is whether the current worldwide economic crisis may undermine recent government efforts.”
Riskin is distinguished professor of economics at Queens College, City University of New York, and senior research scholar at the Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute. A graduate of Harvard and the University of California at Berkeley, he has focused his research and writings on problems of social development in China. Working for the United Nations Development Program in Beijing, Riskin produced the first two “China Human Development Reports” in 1997 and 1999.
The guest speaker for the next spring 2012 Visiting Speaker Series lecture is Edward Telles. That lecture is slated for April 3. Telles, a professor of sociology at Princeton University, focuses on race and inequality across Latin America and on Mexican Americans’ assimilation in the United States.
For more information, visit the Croft Institute for International Studies.