Zhang Weiyin Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2011

Zhang Weiying (; born October 1, 1959) is a Chinese economist and was head of the

Guanghua School of Management The Guanghua School of Management () is the business school of Peking University in Beijing, China. The school offers undergraduate, master's, and doctoral programs, with a total enrollment of more than 3,000 students. In addition to full-time ac ...

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 ...

. He is known for his advocacy of free markets and his ideas have been influenced by the

Austrian School The Austrian School is a heterodox school of economic thought that advocates strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result exclusively from the motivations and actions of individuals. Austrian school ...

Biography

Zhang Weiying was born into a peasant family. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1982, and a master's degree in 1984, from

Northwest University (China) Northwest University () is a public university located in Xi'an, China. Co-funded by the Ministry of Education of China and Shaaxi Provincial Government, it is one of the nation's leading comprehensive universities. It was founded in 1902 as o ...

. He received his M. Phil. in economics in 1992 and D. Phil. in economics from

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. His D. Phil. supervisors were

James Mirrlees Sir James Alexander Mirrlees (5 July 1936 – 29 August 2018) was a British economist and winner of the 1996 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He was knighted in the 1997 Birthday Honours. Early life and education Born in Minnigaf ...

(1996

Nobel Laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...

) and Donald Hay. Between 1984 and 1990, 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 In economics, a price system is a system through which the valuations of any forms of property (tangible or intangible) are determined. All societies use price systems in the allocation and exchange of resources as a consequence of scarcity. Even ...

" (in 1984) and emerged as a strong voice in arguing for it as a mechanism of reform during the Moganshan Youth Conference. Zhang was also known for his contributions to

macro-control Macroeconomic regulation and control () often abbreviated Macro-control () refers to the use of direct government intervention by the central government of the People's Republic of China to cool down the overheated economy. The policy was first i ...

policy debating, ownership reform debating, and entrepreneurship studies. After he graduated from Oxford, he co-founded China Center for Economic Research (CCER),

in 1994, and worked with the Center first as an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

and then as a professor until August 1997. He then moved to Peking University's Guanghua School of Management in September 1997. He was removed as Dean from the Guanghua School of Management in 2010; the removal was attributed to his radical views, which distracted him from the responsibilities of being a dean, according to one teacher at the school. Zhang Weiying is the Sinar Mas Chair Professor of Economics at Peking University's National School of Development.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhang, Weiying 1959 births Alumni of Nuffield College, Oxford Alumni of New College, Oxford Austrian School economists People's Republic of China economists Chinese classical liberals Living people Peking University faculty Northwest University (China) alumni Economists from Shaanxi Writers from Yulin, Shaanxi People's Republic of China writers Educators from Shaanxi