Seminar Series: Abstract

3.30pm
November 18 2009
PSC Reading Room, 4.27 Hedley Bull building

China and the Environment – Tempest in a Teapot?
Professor Thomas G. Rawski, University of Pittsburgh

China’s urban air quality has improved substantially; the trend compares favorably with experience in previous industrialization episodes, which means that public health risks cannot be serious. Green GDP is a good idea, but properly constructed measures will be larger and perhaps grow faster than conventional GDP. China’s regional water shortages represent a potentially more serious issue; the severity of their consequences depends on macroeconomic adjustments, especially employment growth. Efforts to forestall global warming by mandating reduced emissions seem likely to deliver substantial economic damage while providing little benefit. Serious efforts to avoid the consequences of global warming must deploy some combination of globally shared innovation and geo-engineering.

Thomas G. Rawski is Professor of Economics and History at the University of Pittsburgh. His research focuses on the development and modern history of China’s economy, including studies of China’s reform mechanism and achievements, as well as analyses focused on productivity, investment, industry, trade, labor markets, environment, and economic measurement. His publications include Economic Growth and Employment in China; Chinese History in Economic Perspective; Economic Growth in Prewar China; China’s Transition to Industrialization; and Economics and the Historian. He is co-editor of recent volumes on China’s Rise and the Balance of Influence in Asia (2007) and China’s Great Economic Transformation (2008).