Biography: Dr. Kevin H. Zhang is a professor of economics at Illinois State University (ISU). He received his Ph.D from University of Colorado-Boulder in 1995 and completed his post-doctoral research at Harvard University. Before joining ISU, Dr. Zhang served as consultant for the Harvard Institute of International Development. Dr. Zhang’s research filed is international economics, innovation, urban and regional economics, and the Chinese economy. In addition to 5 books on FDI, international trade, industrial development, the Chinese economy, and regional economics, Dr. Zhang has published over 100 articles and book-chapters in leading journals such as Journal of Development Economics, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Journal of Development Studies, Urban Studies, Contemporary Economic Policy, China Economic Review, International Journal of Business, Review of Development Economics, and International ReviewEconomics and Finance. Dr. Zhang is an associate editor of The Chinese Economy (published by Taylor & Francis) and in the editorial board for journals such as Online Journal of Social Sciences Research, Journal of Chinese Economics and Foreign, and The Open Urban Studies Journal. Dr. Zhang served as vice president of Chinese Economists Society (CES) for two terms (2000-01 and 2002-03). For 15 years since 2001, Dr. Zhang has taught in many Chinese schools (such as Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Zhongshan University, Nankai University, and University of International Business and Economics) for EMBA, MBA, and EDP programs and served as advisor/consultant for the Chinese Government at both the central and local levels.

Topic: Wages, Innovation, and Export Upgrading in Emerging Economies: Evidence from China

Abstract: This paper studies the impact of wages, innovation, and other factors on export composition and upgrading in emerging economies, using the Chinese dataset in 2005-2015. Unit labor costs and innovation are introduced in a model of exports with heterogeneous firms. Export sophistication is measured by shares of medium- and high-tech manufactured exports in total manufactured exports, and changes in the shares for export upgrading. Industry-level data are used in constructing the export composition for the Chinese regions. Empirical results suggest that while wages along with productivity and innovation play a key role in China’s export composition, rising wages seem to have little impact on export upgrading. Estimates support the view that innovation, measured by R&D spending and human capital, facilitates technological deepening and thus export upgrading. Other drivers of China’s dynamic comparative advantages include foreign direct investment, infrastructure, and external scale economies.

Biography: Dr. Elizabeth Sushko has a PhD in International law and is a multilingual international lawyer (English, Chinese, German, Russian, and Ukrainian). Since 2010 she has been doing a comparative legal analysis of laws in China, Germany and Ukraine, including company and joint venture laws. In 2017 she has successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation. The dissertation topic was “Civil-legal model of joint stock companies of Ukraine in terms of European integration and globalization: a comparative legal analysis of the legislation in Ukraine, Germany and China”. In 2012 Dr. Sushko has acquired additional education in Company Law-Legal English at the Cambridge Academy of English in Cambridge, UK. More about Dr. Sushko can be found at her personal website http://www.elsushko.com

Topic: One Belt and One Road Initiative: Challenges and International Legal Aspects

Abstract: The interest of different countries in cooperation with China is growing. It is so, especially due to the One Belt and One Road Initiative (the New Silk Road) that has been launched in 2013. It is a multilateral and large-scale infrastructure project to connect Asia and Europe by road, rail and sea (the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road).
China has already signed cooperation agreements with many countries and international organizations. A breakthrough was made in developing multilateral economic corridors. Steady progress is being made in synergizing the initiative with the Eurasian Economic Union.
This speech shall be focused on the scope of the One Belt and One Road Initiative as well as the challenges it faces from an international legal perspective.

Biography: Dr. Xiaoquan Jiang graduated from The University of Houston with a Ph.D. in finance, Texas A&M University with a MS in economics, Sichuan University with MA in economics, and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China with EB in electronic engineering. Dr. Jiang has diversified teaching experiences at different universities and overseas, for instance, Sichuan University, University of Houston, University of Alaska, University of Northern Iowa, Hong Kong Polytech University and Florida International University. Dr. Jiang has taught the courses in undergraduate level, graduate level (including Master of Science in Finance and MBA), and doctoral level. Dr. Jiang’s research focus is on empirical asset pricing and valuation, risk-return relation, financial anomalies, capital market research in accounting. He has published papers in top finance journals, including the Journal of Business, Journal of Banking and Finance, Financial Management, Journal of Financial Markets, etc. Dr. Jiang received several best paper awards and research funds. Dr. Jiang served as a keynote speaker, session chair, presenter, and discussant for many national and international conferences.

Topic: Bias in Predictive Regressions

Abstract: We develop a frequentist framework that generalizes Stambaugh's (1999) analysis of bias in predictive regressions. Byallowing both the predictive error and the state innovation to exhibit timeseries dynamics, we show that 1) in addition to the Stambaugh bias, the predictive coefficient estimates suffer another bias from omitting thepersistence in the predictive error; 2) the Stambaugh bias must adjust forthe persistence in the state innovation. Depending on the parameter values,the two biases have differential relative importance and nontrivial effectson estimations. We propose an easy-to-implement approach to compute abias-corrected estimator and its standard error. Our simulation analysisconfirms the analytical derivations and shows that the omitted-variable biascan exacerbate, offset, and even reverse the Stambaugh bias with reasonablychosen parameter values. We apply our approach to estimating predictiveregressions with various return predictors and find salient evidence ofreturn predictability.