On the afternoon of November 19, 2024, the 17th lecture of Song Zexing Memorial University Lectures by Overseas Prestigious Scholars at Liaoning University was held at the Jonathan KS Choi Hall of Puhe Campus. Professor Gordon Hansen from Harvard Kennedy School was invited to deliver an academic report titled "The Causes and Consequences of Regional Economic Difficulties in the United States". Yu Miaojie, a deputy to the 14th National People's Congress, a member of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress of Liaoning Province, and the vice secretary of the CPC Committee and president of Liaoning University, delivered a speech. Li Yupeng and Qiu Huanguang, vice presidents of LNU, attended the meeting. Xie Mingyi, director of the International Exchanges Department, Wang Weiguang, deputy director of Division of Economics, Ma Xiangjun, vice dean of the Research Institute of Chinese Economy and vice dean of the School of Finance and Trade, Yin Ruyu, deputy director of the International Exchanges Department, and Kong Xiao, director of the Office of Division of Economics, attended the meeting. The meeting was hosted by Qiu Huanguang.
In his speech, Yu Miaojie warmly welcomed Gordon Hansen's arrival and highlighted his high status and outstanding achievements in the field of economics to the attending teachers and students. Gordon Hansen is a top scholar in the field of international trade and development economics. He is a Fellow of International Economic Association, a researcher at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in the United States, and a member of several internationally renowned research institutions. He has served as co-editor of several top economics journals, including the Journal of Development Economics. Gordon Hansen has been teaching at world-class universities such as the University of Michigan, the University of Texas, and the University of California, San Diego. He founded the Global Economic Transformation Center at the University of California, San Diego and has been a visiting scholar at renowned institutions such as Princeton University and Yale University. His research findings have been widely published in the American Economic Review, almost all top economics journals such as Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Political Economy, Econometrica, etc. have been cited nearly 60000 times by Google Scholar. He co-founded the outsourcing model in modern international trade theory with Robert Feenstra and is renowned for his research on the impact of globalization on the labor market. His research provides important insights into the profound impact of trade liberalization, immigration, and technological change on the economy, and is widely acclaimed in the field of policy consulting, providing professional advice to institutions such as the World Bank, IMF, and the US government. Gordon Hansen's academic and policy contributions demonstrate his outstanding position in the international economic community.
At the report meeting, Gordon Hansen reviewed the changes in the US government's attitude towards globalization in the past two decades under the title of "Reasons and Consequences of Regional Economic Difficulties in the United States". He then analyzed the current situation of regional economic difficulties in the United States from three aspects: manufacturing job loss, regional economic decline, and insufficient effective policies, and looked forward to the prospects for solving the difficulties. He pointed out that from the perspective of job loss in the manufacturing industry, unemployment not only affects short-term income, but also creates a "scar effect" in the long run where re employment wages cannot meet the level before job loss, as well as a "ripple effect" where the decline of the manufacturing industry affects the prosperity of other industries. These effects will put the regional economy in a difficult situation. From the perspective of regional economic recession, job losses in the manufacturing industry are mainly concentrated among male groups who have not received higher education, and these groups often have low mobility and low willingness to work in other places. As a result, the areas where jobs are lost have a vicious cycle of weak employment recovery due to the economic downturn, leading to a decrease in local asset prices and investment. From the perspective of insufficient effective policies, the Trump administration's attempt to restore manufacturing employment through the trade war has failed. Among the multiple policies of the Biden administration, only fiscal transfer payments to recession-stricken areas are clearly effective. Subsidies for training unemployed workers have not achieved the expected effect, while providing low interest loans to recession-stricken areas has no effect. Finally, Gordon Hansen looked ahead to the new US government's policies towards troubled areas, stating that neither expanding the trade war nor combining trade war policies with industrial revitalization policies can solve the problems faced by these regions.
After the lecture, Yu Miaojie presented Gordon Hansen with the appointment letter of "Lifetime Honorary Professor of Liaoning University", making him the first honorary professor from Harvard University in our university.
Qiu Huanguang presides over the report meeting
During the interactive session, Ma Xiangjun had in-depth discussions and exchanges with Gordon Hansen on topics such as the impact of policy stability on policy effectiveness, investment opportunities and policies to promote population mobility in economically disadvantaged areas, and the impact of technological progress on disadvantaged areas, along with Associate Professor He Chao from Research Institute of Chinese Economy and Assistant Professor Chen Feng from Li Anmin Institute of Economic Research at Liaoning University.
The award ceremony was presided over by Xie Mingyi. Li Yupeng presented a commemorative plate of the Song Zexing Overseas Famous Lecture Hall to Gordon Hansen, Ma Xiangjun wore the school emblem for Gordon Hansen, Yin Ruyu presented commemorative photos to Gordon Hansen, and teacher representative Wang Dandan presented flowers to him. Finally, the attending guests took a group photo as a souvenir.
The lecture is hosted by the Division of Economics and International Exchanges Office of Liaoning University, and organized by the School of Finance and Trade and the Research Institute of Chinese Economy of LNU. More than 300 teachers and students from affiliated units of the Economics Department attended the lecture
Profile of the keynote Speaker:
Gordon H. Hanson is the Peter Wertheim Chair Professor on Urban Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and serves as the Academic Dean for Strategy and Engagement. Professor Hansen is renowned for his in-depth research on the impact of globalization on the labor market. His current research focuses on the causes and economic consequences of regional unemployment, the effectiveness of regional policies in alleviating regional economic difficulties, the potential impact of energy transition on local labor markets, as well as areas such as immigration, global production, and economic geography.
Professor Hansen is currently a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in the United States, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a fellow of the International Economic Association (IEA). He has been teaching at the University of California, San Diego for 20 years and serving as the Cowhey Center on Global Transformation Senior Fellow. Served as co-editor of journals such as Journal of Economic Perspectives, Review of Economics and Statistics, and Journal of Development Economics. He has published a large number of high-level papers in top economic journals, and his research results have been widely cited by scholars in the field of social sciences and are commonly reported in mainstream media.
