June 22, 2013 (Beijing, China) - "There is hope for a better future," said award-winning U.S. labor economist Edward P. Lazear of the American economy at the Alibaba Auditorium of the Guanghua School of Management on June 22.


 
Professor Edward P. Lazear

In a talk entitled “The Current State of the US Economy: Is There Hope for a Better Future?” Lazear, who is the Jack Steele Parker Professor of Human Resources, Management and Economics at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, shared his views on Saturday about the United States' economic recovery to an audience of Guanghua and Stanford students and alumni.  Guanghua School of Management Dean Cai Hongbin acted as a discussant to Lazear's talk, with Frank Hawke, China Director ofthe Stanford University Graduate School of Business, moderating the event.

 
Professor Lazear addresses a packed audience

Lazear, who served as chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisors under George W. Bush, has researched and written extensively on the state of United States economy.  In his talk, he addressed that the employment rates in the United States from 2005 indicate that not much recovery has occurred since the 2008 global financial crisis.  In his analysis that the US has seen a slow recovery from the last recession, Lazear suggested that having followed a large financial crisis, the current recession may be different from historical examples, and that faulty economic policies have also maybe generated a slow recovery.

According to Lazear, recovery from past recessions has been largely structural, which account for an average recovery within three years.  Data from Lazear's research, however, suggests that a structural mismatch in employment may be blamed for a lag in recovery speed from the last recession.   If this is indeed the case, Lazear said, policy shifts may be necessary to address this particular crisis.  He looked at taxation, regulation of monetary policy, budget, and trade as four ingredients that could improve the state of the US economy.

 
Dean Cai Hongbin

Lazear's talk was followed by commentary given by Guanghua Dean Cai Hongbin, who compared the United States' economy with that of China.  The United States' flexible labor market, good living environment, and innovative capacity, he said, can all give the United States a solid "micro-foundation."  Despite fluctuation on the micro level and bubbles from time to time, Professor Cai expressed, the economy can still correct itself and experience adjustment over the long run.  China, he explained, has a strong "macro-management" scheme, but a weak "micro-management" scheme due to issues including excessive government interventions and an inflexible labor market.  In spite of this, Cai expressed that with the right balance and implementation of serious reforms, he is "cautiously optimistic" that there is a bright future for the Chinese economy.


 
Professor Lazear accepts a token of friendship from Guanghua

Professor Lazear is one of the world's leading labor economists, and has received numerous honors and prizes for his work.  Among them, he was awarded the 1998 Leo Melamed Biennial Prize for the best research by a business school professor, the 2004 Prize for Outstanding Contributions to Labor Economics from the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), and the 2006 Jacob Mincer Prize for lifetime achievement in the field of labor economics. He holds four honorary doctorates, the most recent from the Copenhagen Business School (2013). He is also the founding editor of the Journal of Labor Economics and founder of the Society of Labor Economists.

Saturday's talk, jointly organized by the Guanghua School of Management and the Stanford Center of Peking University, is one of many events held each year at Guanghua in efforts to maintain close cooperation with other leading academic institutions around the world.

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