China's economy, agricultural system on tap as topic of Sichel Series

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—A Trinity College professor will examine China's economic development and agricultural system when he speaks later this month at Western Michigan University as part of the Werner Sichel Lecture Series.

Dr. James G. Wen, professor of economics and international studies, will speak at noon Wednesday, March 30, in 2028 Brown Hall. His talk is titled "Why Is the Exit Right the Key to the Birth of China's Land Market?" and is free and open to the public. A light lunch reception will be available after the lecture.

In addition to China's economic development and reforms, Wen will explore its failed agriculture under compulsory collectivization in the past and its struggling urbanization right now as a result of its compulsory collective land ownership and household registration system. He also will propose a solution to the situation: return the exit rights to farmers so they can make their own decision whether they should stay within the current land system or leave it with their own share of land.

James G. Wen

Wen earned his master's degree from Fudan University in Shanghai and his doctoral degree from the University of Chicago Department of Economics. He taught at Fudan University and Branch College, City University of New York, before accepting an appointment in 1994 from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Wen is co-editor of the Journal of Frontier of Economics in China. In addition, he is a specially appointed professor and director of the Center for Agriculture and Coordinated Rural-Urban Development at the Advanced Institute for Research at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

Wen also is a specially invited professor at the Research Center for Political Economy at Tsinghua University and a senior fellow at the Research Institute of Economic Thought and Economic History at Fudan University as well as sitting on editorial boards of several publications, including the China Economic Quarterly, China Economic Review and Contemporary China Study.

Wen's research interests are China's agriculture and development, the Great Leap Forward Famine, and China's problems in its land system in light of urbanization, globalization and marketization. Meanwhile, he is using an economic geographical perspective to study the Needham Puzzle.

He has published numerous papers and books in English and Chinese. His most recent book is titled "Our People Have No Land" and has received wide attention in China.

about the series

The theme for this year's Werner Sichel Lecture Series is "The Impacts of China's Rise on the Pacific and the World." The series is organized by the WMU Department of Economics and named in honor of Werner Sichel, a longtime WMU economics professor and former department chair, who retired in 2004. The series is cosponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research and the Timothy Light Center for Chinese Studies. The lectures are open to the public and formatted with the general public in mind.

Upcoming speaker

• April 13: Dr. Xiaodong Zhu, professor of economics at the University Toronto, "Trade, Migration and Growth: Evidence from China."

This year's series is being organized by Drs. Wei-Chiao Huang and Huizhong Zhou, WMU professors of economics.

For more information, contact Huang at (269) 387-5528 or huang@wmich.edu, or Zhou at (269) 387-5550 or huizhong.zhou@wmich.edu or visit wmich.edu/economics/events.

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