The Radical Economist
Professor Zhang Weiyang is the Dean of Guanghua School of Management of Peking University, and Director of the Institute of Business Research of Peking University and e-Business Center. Weiyang’s work has been twin-fold. His visionary reforms have changed business education in China. His work has also changed the course of ongoing enterprise reform policy formulation and the development of economics in China. Weiyang received his M. Phil. in economics in 1992 and D. Phil. in economics from Oxford University. His D. Phil. supervisors were James Mirrlees (1996 Nobel Laureate) and Donald Hay. Later, he was a research fellow of the Economic System Reform Institute of China under the State Commission of Restructuring Economic System. During this period, he was heavily involved in economic reform policy making in China. He was the first Chinese economist who proposed the “dual-track price system reform” (in 1984). He was also known for his contributions to macro-control policy debating, ownership reform debating, and entrepreneurship studies. After he graduated from Oxford, he co-founded China Center for Economic Research (CCER), Peking University in 1994, where he worked as a professor until 1997. He then moved to Guanghua School of Management where he has played a leading role in transforming the school. His visionary reform measures have generated significant impacts on changes of business education in China. He was the chief architect of the 2003 Peking University faculty system reform. Professor Weiyang Zhang’s research interests include the industrial organization, corporate governance, and information economics. He is a widely recognized authority of the theory of the firm and ownership reform in China. He is best known for his theory of “capital-hiring-labor”, management selection and relationship between ownership and reputation. He has published dozens of academic articles in top international journals and 10 books. He has been the most cited economist in China.
