A Perfect Storm: COVID, Collapse of the Property Sector, and Local Government Debt in China
Date: Thursday, 23 November 2023
Time: 5:30PM – 7:00PM
Speaker: Professor Jean Oi, Stanford University
Venue: CIW Auditorium, Bldg 188, Fellows Lane
Local government debt skyrocketed during the last years of China’s zero COVID polices and has continued to rise unabated, troubling Beijing and rattling international financial markets. Professor Jean Oi will discuss the causes of this dilemma and reflect on solutions that Beijing is proposing to handle the problem. Her research highlights that while COVID certainly raised expenditures for local governments, it was state policies during the pandemic to enforce fiscal discipline and deleverage the real estate sector that triggered growing mountains of local government debt.
About the speaker
Jean Oi is the William Haas Professor on Chinese Politics in the department of political science and a Senior Fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.
