Inequality in China: Challenges to a Harmonious Society
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**Due to space restrictions, this event has reached capacity and we will no longer be taking RSVPs. Everyone is still welcome to attend but please plan to arrive early as seating is on a first come, first serve basis.**
Under the Hu-Wen leadership, China announced a shift in its development policy from a policy program that mainly emphasizes economic growth to one that pursues a “harmonious society.” The harmonious society program was a response to rapid increases in inequality during the 1990s, and its aim has been to ensure that the benefits from growth are widely shared.
In recent years have the benefits from growth been widely shared? Has income inequality increased or decreased during the Hu-Wen era?
Drawing on recent findings from the China Household Income Project, a collaborative survey research project monitoring changes in incomes and inequality, Professor Terry Sicular will discuss recent trends in inequality and poverty in China.
Terry Sicular is professor of economics at the University of Western Ontario. She received her doctorate at Yale and has taught at Stanford and Harvard. She is a specialist on the Chinese economy, speaks Mandarin, and has been studying and travelling to China for more than 30 years. Her recent research examines incomes and inequality in China, as well as related topics such as educational attainment and its intergenerational transmission, and the impact of housing reforms on household income and wealth. She has published widely in scholarly journals and books, and is as a contributor to and co-editor of Inequality and Public Policy, published by Cambridge University Press (2008). She has served as a consultant to international donor organizations, and is a leader in the ongoing, China Household Income Project, a collaborative research project that conducts a nationwide household survey and monitors trends in China’s incomes and inequality.
This event is part of the China's Looming Challenges series.
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Terry Sicular
Professor
Speaker
Department of Economics, University of Western Ontario
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Stanford president emeritus to take helm of FSI
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Gerhard Casper, Stanford’s ninth president and a senior fellow at the university’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, has been appointed to lead the institute for a year. The announcement was made Wednesday by Ann Arvin, vice provost and dean of research.
Casper will become director on Sept. 1, 2012. He succeeds Coit D. Blacker, an FSI senior fellow, the Olivier Nomellini Professor in International Studies, and the Olivier Nomellini Family University Fellow in Undergraduate Education. Blacker, whose affiliation with Stanford began in 1977, will be on sabbatical leave next year.
“Chip has provided truly remarkable leadership for FSI,” Arvin said.
Among his priorities at the helm of FSI, Casper will spearhead a search for a director who will take his place in 2013.
“As a senior fellow at FSI since 2000, President Casper brings a deep knowledge of the institute and his own unparalleled experience with academic leadership to the launch of the next phase of the institute’s development,” Arvin said. “His willingness to make this commitment to FSI assures that its many dynamic research and educational programs will be maintained and that new opportunities can be pursued vigorously.”
Casper’s work has primarily focused on constitutional law, constitutional history, comparative law, and legal theory. He has also worked on rule of law issues, teaching in the Draper Hills Summer Fellowship program at FSI’s Center on Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law.
“My main interests in life have been issues of governance as reflected in United States constitutional history and law,” Casper said. “Apart from such global problems as hunger, disease and security, governability itself has become a substantive concern for nation states, regional organizations – such as the European Union – and for the world. Hardly any substantive matter can any longer be addressed and solved parochially. Because of that, institutions like FSI are worth our attention and support. Because of that I have agreed to make my own modest contribution.
“That decision has been made much easier by the great leadership which Chip Blacker has provided over the last nine years,” he said.
Blacker, who has led FSI since 2003, called Casper the “perfect choice” to lead FSI.
"President Casper brings a deep knowledge of the institute and his own unparalleled experience with academic leadership to the launch of the next phase of the institute’s development," – Ann Arvin, vice provost and dean of research
“I’m delighted that Gerhard Casper has agreed to take the reins of FSI after I step down in August,” Blacker said. “Gerhard’s willingness to serve in this capacity guarantees strong leadership for the institute at a critically important moment in its history.”
Before starting his tenure as Stanford’s president in 1992, Casper spent 26 years at the University of Chicago where he taught law before serving as dean of the law school. He was Chicago’s provost from 1989 to 1992.
Casper, who is the Peter and Helen Bing Professor in Undergraduate Studies, Emeritus, and a professor emeritus at Stanford Law School, began his teaching career in 1964 as an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley.
Born in Hamburg, Germany in 1937, Casper studied law at the universities of Freiburg and Hamburg. He earned his first law degree in 1961 and received his master of laws degree from Yale Law School a year later. He then returned to Freiburg, where he received his doctorate in 1964. He immigrated to the United States in 1964.
He has been elected to membership in the American Law Institute, the International Academy of Comparative Law, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Orden Pour le mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste (Order Pour le mérite for the Sciences and Arts), and the American Philosophical Society. He has held the Kluge Chair in American Law and Governance at the Library of Congress, and has been awarded several honorary doctorates.
Casper is a member of the board of trustees of the Central European University in Budapest and additional not-for-profit boards. From 2000 to 2008, he served as a successor trustee of Yale University.
He is married to Regina Casper, professor emerita (on recall) of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford.
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President Emeritus Gerhard Casper greets German Chancellor Angela Merkel during her appearance at Stanford on April 15, 2010.
L.A. Cicero
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China's Fifth Generation takes the Helm: New Leaders, New Challenges, and Structural Constraints
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The team of leaders who will take the helm in China beginning next year—the so-called “Fifth Generation”—will be better educated, have greater exposure to the outside world, and extensive experience implementing policies that have facilitated sustained economic growth and growing international influence. They may view issues somewhat differently than their predecessors but have risen to the top by going along to get ahead and are unlikely to propose radical policy initiatives. But they must confront a growing number of challenges fueled by China’s past success and recent behavior and will be constrained by structural features of the Chinese system and integration into the global market.
Thomas Fingar is the Oksenberg-Rohlen Distinguished Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). In 2009, he was the Payne Distinguished Lecturer at FSI. From May 2005 through December 2008, he served as the first deputy director of national intelligence for analysis and, concurrently, as chairman of the National Intelligence Council.
This event is part of the China's Looming Challenges series.
Philippines Conference Room
Thomas Fingar
Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Stanford University
Encina Hall, C-327
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
0
tfingar@stanford.edu
Shorenstein APARC Fellow
Affiliated Scholar at the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions
Thomas Fingar is a Shorenstein APARC Fellow in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. He was the inaugural Oksenberg-Rohlen Distinguished Fellow from 2010 through 2015 and the Payne Distinguished Lecturer at Stanford in 2009.
From 2005 through 2008, he served as the first deputy director of national intelligence for analysis and, concurrently, as chairman of the National Intelligence Council. Fingar served previously as assistant secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (2000-01 and 2004-05), principal deputy assistant secretary (2001-03), deputy assistant secretary for analysis (1994-2000), director of the Office of Analysis for East Asia and the Pacific (1989-94), and chief of the China Division (1986-89). Between 1975 and 1986 he held a number of positions at Stanford University, including senior research associate in the Center for International Security and Arms Control.
Fingar is a graduate of Cornell University (A.B. in Government and History, 1968), and Stanford University (M.A., 1969 and Ph.D., 1977 both in political science). His most recent books are From Mandate to Blueprint: Lessons from Intelligence Reform (Stanford University Press, 2021), Reducing Uncertainty: Intelligence Analysis and National Security (Stanford University Press, 2011), The New Great Game: China and South and Central Asia in the Era of Reform, editor (Stanford University Press, 2016), Uneasy Partnerships: China and Japan, the Koreas, and Russia in the Era of Reform (Stanford, 2017), and Fateful Decisions: Choices that will Shape China’s Future, co-edited with Jean Oi (Stanford, 2020). His most recent article is, "The Role of Intelligence in Countering Illicit Nuclear-Related Procurement,” in Matthew Bunn, Martin B. Malin, William C. Potter, and Leonard S Spector, eds., Preventing Black Market Trade in Nuclear Technology (Cambridge, 2018)."
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Research Presentations - Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellows
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Young Muk Jeon, "The Financial Crisis and Life Insurance Companies"
The global financial market clearly rebounded from the shock of the 2008 financial crisis. However, recently the market volatility has grown due to oil price hikes, the European debt crisis and the anemic U.S. economic growth rate. A series of financial institutions filed bankruptcies or were sold during the crisis. However, life insurance companies fared relatively well in terms of financial difficulty. In his research, Jeon explores the impact of the financial crisis on the life insurance industry and looks at what are the main reasons for the resilience of the life insurance sector. Furthermore, Jeon presents what kind of strategic actions are needed for life insurers to weather the current turbulent climate.
Jong Jin Lee, "Corporate Communications: Changing with the Media Environment"
Recent changes have occurred in the modes of communication prevalent in South Korea, a rapidly advancing society where newer varieties of interactive media have significantly displaced traditional print and broadcast media among the youngest and most well-educated segments of the population. These changes have also had a profound impact on the quality of corporate communications to the public. In his presentation, Lee will address both the advent of the “netizen” and the hotter media environment for today’s companies in South Korea. Most critically, he will also discuss the evolution of corporate public relations responses to public perceptions and media depictions of crises, illustrating his narrative with striking examples from his own company’s history.
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Young Muk Jeon
Samsung Life Insurance
Speaker
Jong Jin Lee
Samsung Electronics
Speaker
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Policy and Practice in Japan’s New Business Incubation Revolution: a Typology of Incubation Management and Emerging Hybrid Model
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Abstract
Since 2000, Japan has undergone a revolution in new business incubation, investing in national capacity and building hundreds of incubation facilities. This paper contextualizes developments in Japan within international trends, while identifying model incubator types. A typology of incubation management styles is proposed, contextualized within practices in the U.S. and Europe. The paper is based on an original database constructed of all incubators operating in Japan, in addition to survey and interviews with incubator managers and tenant firms. Several findings are evident. Incubation management style and incubation managers (IM) play an important role in supporting start-ups, and the nature of IM resource networks is crucial. Through a review of key policy history in Japan, policy lessons for national, regional and university level practitioners are identified. Case studies examine comparative best practices stimulating university-based new business start-ups in emerging sectors. A hybrid (university-private sector, training-network support) incubation management model has emerged in Japan, one that cultivates a bamboo network root system, supporting an innovative ecosystem for start-ups.
About the Author
Kathryn Ibata-Arens, PhD is Associate Professor at Department of Political Science, DePaul University, Chicago. She is currently a visiting scholar at the Research Institute for Economy Trade and Industry (RIETI) and visiting researcher in the Graduate School of Management, Ritsumeikan University, Japan. Ibata-Arens specializes in international and comparative political economy, entrepreneurship policy, high technology policy and Japanese political economy.
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Expulsions: Inequality's Fifth Circle
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In the last two decades there has been a sharp growth in the numbers of people that have been “expelled,” numbers far larger than the newly “incorporated” middle classes of countries such as India and China. I use the term “expulsion” to describe a diversity of conditions: the growing numbers of the abjectly poor, of the displaced in poor countries who are warehoused in formal and informal refugee camps, of the minoritized and persecuted in rich countries who are warehoused in prisons, of workers whose bodies are destroyed on the job and rendered useless at far too young an age, able-bodied surplus populations warehoused in ghettoes and slums. One major trend is the repositioning of what had been framed as sovereign territory, a complex conditions, into land for sale on the global market – land in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Central Asia and in Latin America to be bought by rich investors and rich governments to grow food, to access underground water tables, and to access minerals and metals. My argument is that these diverse and many other kindred developments amount to a logic of expulsion, signaling a deeper systemic transformation in advanced capitalism, one documented in bits and pieces but not quite narrated as an overarching dynamic that is taking us into a new phase of global capitalism. The paper is based on the author’s forthcoming book Expulsions.
Saskia Sassen is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology and Co-Chair, The Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University (www.saskiasassen.com). Her recent books are Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages (Princeton University Press 2008), A Sociology of Globalization (W.W.Norton 2007), both translated into Spanish by Editorial Katz (Madrid y Buenos Aires), and the 4th fully updated edition of Cities in a World Economy (Sage 2012). Among older books is The Global City (Princeton University Press 1991/2001). Her books are translated into over 20 languages. She is the recipient of diverse awards and mentions, ranging from multiple doctor honoris causa to named lectures and being selected as one of the 100 Top Global Thinkers of 2011 by Foreign Policy Magazine.
Recommended readings:
- Sassen, Saskia(2010) 'A Savage Sorting of Winners and Losers: Contemporary Versions of Primitive Accumulation', Globalizations, 7: 1, 23 — 50
- Sassen, Saskia, "When the City Itself Becomes a Technology of War" in Theory, Culture & Society 2010, Vol. 27(6): 33-50 (A PDF of this document can be found below.)
Sponsored by The Europe Center, the Abassi Program in Islamic Studies, and the Mediterranean Studies Forum
CISAC Conference Room
Saskia Sassen
Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology and Co-Chair of the Committee on Global Thought
Speaker
Columbia University
David Palumbo-Liu
Professor and Director of Comparative Literature and Director of the Asian American Studies Program
Speaker
Stanford University
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Worldwide Inflation and International Monetary Reform: Exchange Rates or Interest Rates?
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Ronald I. McKinnon is an applied economist whose primary interests are international economics and economic development-with strong secondary interests in transitional economies and fiscal federalism. Understanding financial institutions in general, and monetary institutions in particular, is central to his teaching and research. His interests range from the proper regulation of banks and financial markets in poorer countries to the historical evolution of global and regional monetary systems. His books, numerous articles in professional journals, and op-eds in the financial press such as The Economist, The Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal reflect this range of interests.
Event Summary
Professor McKinnon first outlines the two major assumptions behind his paper (available on this page). First, that from December 2008 to August 2011, an inflow of "hot money" to emerging economies resulted from low U.S., European, and Japanese interest rates. Since then, the trend has reversed in the wake of the European banking crisis and bank lending has fallen. Second, the dollar remains the widespread central bank reserve currency despite instability in the U.S. system.
McKinnon voices concern about Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's zero interest rate policy, calling it an overreaction to the crisis and a "lose-lose" policy as it deters investment in the U.S. while simultaneously spurring destabilizing hot money flows to surrounding emerging markets. These countries are in turn forced to suppress interest rates to mitigate the inflows, and to build up dollar reserves to keep exchange rates in check. The zero interest rate policy also stimulates carry trades in commodities by speculators.
The belief that under a zero interest rate regime, inflation will stimulate the economy by bringing real interest rates to negative levels, is misplaced in McKinnon's view. He argues that this simply adds uncertainty and interferes with efficient bank intermediation, as banks hold high excess reserves and tighten lending, causing a procyclical contraction as has been seen in the United States and Europe. He contrasts this approach with China, which stabilized its economy following the “dot-com” bust by expanding rather than contracting bank credit. He criticizes U.S. pressure on China to appreciate or float its currency, asserting that these strategies would fail to reduce China's trade surplus.
McKinnon suggests that international reforms should target interest rates instead of exchange rates. He recommends coordination between central banks of the major industrialized countries, especially the United States, European countries, and Japan - to collectively raise interest rates to approximately 2%. This would improve overall bank intermediation, and would benefit both central and peripheral countries in Europe.
A question and answer session following the talked addressed topics including: the likelihood of a coordinated effort between central banks; the potential effects of Kucinich's monetary reform proposal; the potential negative effects on real growth from carry trades, and whether this is a cause for concern; and the effects of bank borrowing trends in Europe on the European monetary system.
CISAC Conference Room
Ronald I. McKinnon
Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
Encina Hall, Room E301
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
0
mckinnon@stanford.edu
William D. Eberle Professor of International Economics
Ronald McKinnon is the William D. Eberle Professor of International Economics at Stanford University. Currently, he is researching trade and financial policy in less-developed countries, the transition from socialism in Asia and Eastern Europe, the foreign exchange market and U.S.-Japan trade disputes, European monetary unification and international monetary reform, and the economics of market-preserving federalism.
Recent books by McKinnon include The Order of Economic Liberalization: Financial Control on the Transition to a Market Economy, 2nd edition (1993); The Rules of the Game: International Money and Exchange Rates (1996); and Dollar and Yen: Resolving Economic Conflict between the United States and Japan (with K. Ohno, 1997). Recent (1997) articles include "Credible Liberalizations and International Capital Flows: The Overborrowing Syndrome" (with H. Pill); "The East Asian Dollar Standard, Life after Death?" (1999); and "The Syndrome of the Ever-Higher Yen: American Mercantile Pressure on Japanese Monetary Policy" (with K. Ohno and K. Shirono, 1999). McKinnon teaches international trade and finance, economic development, money and banking, and financial control in developing and transitional socialist economies.
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Incomplete Assimilation among Muslims in France
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Recognizing the political consequences for Europe of Muslim immigration, and relying on a novel identification strategy, this paper investigates why Muslim assimilation into French cultural norms is incomplete, and provides experimental and survey evidence that reveals the low expected payoffs that Muslim immigrants in France receive for full assimilation. While the data show that rooted French people initially distrust Muslims (compared to a matched set of Christians) in part due to their unwillingness to fully assimilate, the real source of Muslim reluctance to fully assimilate is their perception that in anonymous transactions (i.e., through French institutions) they will always be perceived as foreign and face discrimination.
Workshop paper is available to Stanford affiliates upon request by email to khaley@stanford.edu
David Laitin is the James T. Watkins IV and Elise V. Watkins Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. He received his B.A. in Political Science from Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include comparative politics, nation-state formation, ethnic conflict, and religion. Among his publications are Politics, Language and Thought: The Somali Experience (1977), Hegemony and Culture: Politics and Religious Change among the Yoruba (1986), Language Repertoires and State Construction in Africa (1992), Identity in Formation: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Near Abroad (1998), and Nations, States and Violence (2007). Prof. Laitin has been a recipient of fellowships from the Howard Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Russell Sage Foundation. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.
Event Summary
Professor Laitin opens the seminar by providing background on the research project that motivated the paper. This examined: whether Muslim immigrants in France faced unique social and economic barriers; the source of the barriers; and whether French republicanism exacerbated or lessened the barriers. He provides a brief summary of studies examining the first and third points, but the focus of his talk was on the second point: if there are higher barriers for Muslims, who is building them?
Professor Laitin then describes the study his research team carried out on a Senegalese population in France for 15 years, drawing on equal-sized groups of Muslims and Christians from similar social and economic conditions. Through a series of games and surveys, the team observed that within Senegalese Muslims in France, certain groups assimilate more than others, and those that assimilate less are treated worse by French individuals and institutions. Many of the Muslims expected to be treated less generously by French individuals, and reported more experiences of discrimination from French institutions, which Professor Laitin's team found was more difficult to overcome than individual discrimination. This group also exhibited stronger financial ties (measured by investments and remittances sent to Senegal from France) and emotional ties (measured by desire to be buried in Senegal rather than France after death). The results of the study are used to provide a series of decision rules and reward matrixes for incoming Senegalese Muslims, including the likelihood of penalties and rewards for assimilation, such as giving children French names.
During a discussion period following the presentation, such questions were raised as: Do the results of the study have more to do with the respondents being Muslim, or simply not being French - or, do other ethnic or religious groups have the same problems assimilating into French Catholic society? Is the example of preferences for burial locations more about ties to Senegal than lack of ties to France? How much of the effect is due to being black rather than Muslim? Will the results of the study change as the Muslim population in France increases? What has been the reception in France to the prohibition of collecting ethnographic data? Why is "incomplete assimilation" framed as a "response" to the discrimination - is it a choice or is it just the way things are? Where does the fault lie in the discrimination reported in the survey?
CISAC Conference Room
David Laitin
Department of Political Science
Stanford University
Encina Hall, W423
Stanford, CA 94305-6044
0
dlaitin@stanford.edu
James T. Watkins IV and Elise V. Watkins Professor of Political Science
David Laitin is the James T. Watkins IV and Elise V. Watkins Professor of Political Science and a co-director of the Immigration Policy Lab at Stanford. He has conducted field research in Somalia, Nigeria, Spain, Estonia and France. His principal research interest is on how culture – specifically, language and religion – guides political behavior. He is the author of “Why Muslim Integration Fails in Christian-heritage Societies” and a series of articles on immigrant integration, civil war and terrorism. Laitin received his BA from Swarthmore College and his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.
Affiliated faculty at the Center for International Security and Cooperation
Affiliated faculty at The Europe Center
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Islam and Contemporary Europe: A New Generation of Converts to Islam: Frictions of Race and Religion in Germany
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Why in the last ten years an increasing number of ethnic Germans have converted to Islam in Salafi mosques or, after converting elsewhere, have chosen to attend these famously conservative houses of worship? Most scholars explain the spread of Salafism in Europe primarily as a social protest engaged in by second- and third-generation immigrant Muslims who feel marginalized from mainstream society. This article argues instead that Salafism can best be understood as a fundamentalist religious movement which satisfies individuals’ spiritual, psychological, and sociological needs. It is not so different from other fundamentalisms, particularly in the attraction it holds for converts. Among the most attractive aspects for newcomers is Salafism’s anti-culturalist and anti-traditionalist bent, which allows ethnic Germans to move past their racialized assumptions about Muslims and embrace Islam without necessarily embracing immigrant Muslims. Unlike the great majority of mosques in Germany, which function as ethnic and national community centers, Salafi mosques create unique settings where piety— rather than ethnicity— defines belonging.
Esra Özyürek, is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California – San Diego. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Her work focuses on how politics, religion, and social memory shape and transform each other in contemporary Turkey and Germany. Her earlier work, Nostalgia for the Modern: State Secularism and Everyday Politics in Turkey (Duke Univ. Press, 2006), focused on the transformation of state secularism as Turkey moved from from the top-down modernization project of the 1930s to market based modernization in the 1990s. Currently she is undertaking a comparative ethnographic study of conversion to religious minorities, namely converts to Islam in Germany and to Christianity in Turkey.
Co-sponsored by The Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies.
Workshop papers are available to Stanford affiliates upon request by email to abbasiprogram@stanford.edu.
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Esra Ozyurek
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Speaker
UC San Diego
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