Woo Wing Thye (Chinese name: 胡永泰) is a

Malaysian Malaysian may refer to: * Something from or related to Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia * Malaysian Malay, a dialect of Malay language spoken mainly in Malaysia * Malaysian people, people who are identified with the country of Malaysia regard ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

economist. He is currently Vice President for Asia of the UN

Sustainable Development Solutions Network The Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) is a non-profit launched by the United Nations in 2012 to promote the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at national and international levels. As of 2022, the SDSN has ...

; Distinguished Fellow of th
Penang Institute
in George Town, Malaysia; National Distinguished Fellow in the

Thousand Talents Program The Thousand Talents Plan or Thousand Talents Program (TTP) (), or Overseas High-Level Talent Recruitment Programs () is a program by the central government of China to recruit experts in science and technology from abroad, principally but not exc ...

of China; Changjiang Professor in China; and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics at

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

. He is also Director of the East Asia Program within the Center for Sustainable Development at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and a member of the International Advisory Council at th
Center for Social and Economic Research
(CASE); and holds academic positions

Fudan University Fudan University () is a national public research university in Shanghai, China. Fudan is a member of the C9 League, Project 985, Project 211, and the Double First Class University identified by the Ministry of Education of China. It is als ...

in Shanghai,

Henan University Henan University () is one of the oldest public and Double First Class Universities in China. It was founded in 1912. In the beginning, its name was the Preparatory School for Further Study in Europe and America. In 1942, its name was changed to ...

in Kaifeng, Xinjiang University of Finance and Economics in Urumuchi,

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...

in Beijing, and

Sunway University Sunway University is a private university in Bandar Sunway, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. It has a 10 hectare (24 acre) campus comprising academic and residential blocks adjacent to the Sunway Lagoon theme park. It offers undergradua ...

in Kuala Lumpur. Professor Woo is an expert on East Asian economies, particularly China, Malaysia and Indonesia. He has written extensively on the middle-income trap, as well as on transition economics, growth and development, globalization, exchange rate economics, and regional economic disparity. He earned his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1982 with a thesis entitled 'Exchange rate determination under rational expectations: a structural approach'. The

University of Cambodia The University of Cambodia (often referred to as UC for short; km, សាកលវិទ្យាល័យកម្ពុជា, ''Sakâlvĭtyéalai Kămpŭchéa'') is a private university located on Northbridge Road in Sen Sok District, Phnom Pe ...

awarded Professor Woo an Honorary Doctorate in Sustainable Development in 2020.

Biography

Woo was born in 1954 in George Town, Penang, Malaysia. Following undergraduate study in economics and engineering at

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

, he took an MA in Economics at

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

and later an MA and PhD at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

(1982). Woo has been a member the economics faculty at the

, since 1985. He has also worked at the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...

in Washington, D.C., at different stages of his career, starting as a Research Assistant in 1976-77, then as a Research Associate in 1982-1985, and finally as the New Century Chair in International Trade and Economics from 2006-2009. Woo has worked as a consultant on tax and exchange rate reform for China's Ministry of Finance and, between 1994 and 1996, led an international team, which included

Leszek Balcerowicz Leszek Henryk Balcerowicz (pronounced ; born 19 January 1947) is a Polish economist, statesman, and Professor at Warsaw School of Economics. He served as Chairman of the National Bank of Poland (2001–2007) and twice as Deputy Prime Minister of ...

Boris Fyodorov Boris Grigoryevich Fyodorov (russian: Борис Григорьевич Фёдоров) (13 February 1958 in Moscow – 20 November 2008 in London) was a Russian economist, politician, and reformer. Early life He was awarded a doctor of economi ...

Fan Gang Fan Gang (; born in 1953) is one of China's most prominent economists and one of China's most active reform advocates. He is currently based in Beijing, serving as a professor at the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) a ...

and

Jeffrey Sachs Jeffrey David Sachs () (born 5 November 1954) is an American economist, academic, public policy analyst, and former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the title of University Professor. He is known for his work ...

to study the reform experiences of centrally planned economies. From 1997-1998, he was a special advisor to the

U.S. Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...

. In 2001, Woo helped establish th
Asian Economic Panel
(AEP), a forum of about 80 specialists on Asian economies, which meets three times a year to discuss issues of importance to the region's economies. Selected proceedings of the AEP are published in the ''Asian Economic Papers'', MIT Press. From 2002 until 2005, Woo was a special advisor for East Asian Economies to the

United Nations Millennium Project The Millennium Project was an initiative that focused on detailing the organizational means, operational priorities, and financing structures necessary to achieve the Millennium Development Goals or (MDGs). The goals are aimed at the reduction of ...

. In July 2005, he was appointed to the International Advisory Panel for Malaysia's then-Prime Minister

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Tun Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi ( Jawi: عبد الله بن احمد بدوي; born 26 November 1939) is a Malaysian politician who served as the 5th Prime Minister of Malaysia from October 2003 to April 2009. He was also the sixth president of ...

, and he was an economics advisor to the State of

Penang Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay ...

in 2008-2018. He was Executive Director of th
Penang Institute
Penang state government's public policy think tank, between 2012 and 2013. Professor Woo has also served at Sunway University as a member of the Board of Directors in 2015-2021, founding President of the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia (JCI) in 2014-2022, founding Director of th
Jeffrey Sachs Center for Sustainable Development (JSC)
in 2016-2022, and Acting CEO of th
Asian Strategic Leadership Institute
(ASLI) in 2021-2022.

Research interests

Professor Woo's research interests are economic restructuring, financial contagion, fiscal crisis, and the 17

Sustainable Development Goals The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future".United Nations (2017) R ...

. His research covers China's economic reforms as well as its sources of growth and the wealth gap, which Woo argues has been significantly understated. Woo was recently described as "one of the world's foremost experts on the Chinese economy," and appears regularly in the media. He is also a contributor to

Project Syndicate Project Syndicate is an international media organization that publishes and syndicates commentary and analysis on a variety of global topics. All opinion pieces are published on the ''Project Syndicate'' website, but are also distributed to a wi ...

References

External links

Woo Wing Thye UC Davis Faculty Page

CV of Wing Thye Woo at CASE Center for Social and Economic Research

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woo, Wing Thye 1954 births Living people 21st-century American economists Columbia University faculty Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Malaysian economists Malaysian emigrants to the United States Swarthmore College alumni University of California, Davis faculty Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni