Watch: 2024 Finch Public Lecture

Professor Shang-Jin Wei, a leading expert in international finance and economics from Columbia University, presented the 2024 Finch Public Lecture at the University of Melbourne, on Tuesday, October 22 2024.

Characterising US and Chinese Industrial Policies

The 2024 David Finch Public Lecture explores the policy practices in the world's two largest economies and dives into AI-driven analysis of US policies and China’s innovation-focused industrial strategy, highlighting the complex interplay of government intervention and social outcomes.

Professor Shang-Jin Wei
About the speaker
Professor Shang-Jin Wei is the N.T. Wang Professor of Chinese Business and Economy and Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business and School of International and Public Affairs. Professor Wei previously served as Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank and Director General of its Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department. Prior to his Columbia appointment in 2007, he was Assistant Director and Chief of Trade and Investment Division at the International Monetary Fund. He was the IMF’s Chief of Mission to Myanmar in 2004. He previously held the positions of Associate Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University, the New Century Chair in Trade and International Economics at the Brookings Institution, and Advisor at the World Bank. He has been a consultant to numerous government organisations including the US Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the United Nations Economic Commission on Europe, the United Nations Development Program, the Asian Development Bank, and private companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers. He holds a PhD in economics and MS in finance from the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Wei is a noted scholar on international finance, trade, macroeconomics, and China. He is a recipient of the Sun Yefang Prize for Distinguished Contributions to Economics (for the invention of the Competitive Saving Motive published in the Journal of Political Economy), the Zhang Peifang Prize for Contributions to Economics of Development (for pioneering work on the measurement of global value chains published in American Economic Review), and the Gregory Chow Award for Best Research Paper. His research has been published in top academic journals including American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of International Economics, and Journal of Development Economics.
(L-R): Professor Mei Dong, Professor Phillip McCalman, Professor Shang-Jin Wei, Professor Paul Kofman
About the lecture series

The Finch Lecture is named after Dr David Finch (BCom 1944, BA (Hons) 1945, DCom 2002), a distinguished alumnus of the University of Melbourne, and a PhD recipient from the London School of Economics, where his supervisor was Lionel Robbins. He was appointed to the newly established International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington D.C., where he held the position of Councillor and Director of the Exchange and Trade section of the IMF. Among his many achievements, he led the IMF consultation mission to Britain in 1976. Dr Finch retired in 1987 from his position as Counsellor and Head of the Exchange and Trade Relations Department.

The lecture focuses on the subject of evolving practices and principles and related issues pertaining to international monetary, financial, fiscal and trade integration and cooperation.