I don't like to leave Los Angeles. I only fly away when I anticipate that I might learning something at my destination.  On December 9th, I'll have an opportunity to sit down with Professor Paul Romer of NYU to discuss China.  My parents will be there and they are eager to meet Paul.  I first met Paul in April 1988 when I attended the University of Chicago's Ph.D. recruitment day.    Spend two seconds studying his Google Scholar page and you will see his impact on the profession.   Urban economics has received a great boost by his ongoing interest in our core questions.

On December 9th, I want to talk about my May 2016 Princeton Press book but I already know what my book says.  Google Scholar points you to my academic papers focused on environmental and urban issues in China.   You can raise my REPEC ranking by clicking on specific papers here;  





 Instead, I would like to ask Paul the following questions;


1.  The New York Times (on almost a daily basis for example read this) punches the Chinese Communist Party.   The Times argues that quality of life is horrible in modern China. Is this true?  Is the standard of living improving in China?  Is the autocratic state responsive to the median citizen's desires?  Is there accountability in this leading non-democracy?

2.  Paul Romer has stressed the the unique public goods aspect of ideas.   For decades, China was copying Western and Japanese and South Korean ideas.  As China now builds up its R&D sector, what role will it play in pushing forward the knowledge frontier and what are the implications for achieving the "win-win" of economic development with less local air pollution and fewer aggregate greenhouse gas emissions?

3.  China currently burns plenty of coal. Why hasn't it moved faster up the energy ladder to relying more on cleaner natural gas?

4.  Daron Acemoglu has argued that China's extractive institutions are such that the nation's long run continued growth is unlikely to occur.   Are institutions "malleable"?  When the efficiency costs of bad policies are observed (i.e rising deadweight loss from status quo policies), do self interested politicians change the "rules of the game"?

5.  James Heckman has stressed the key role that early child development plays in determining whether a kid grows up and achieves his/her full potential.  If pollution hinders child development and if human capital (rather than the dirty factory) is increasingly the "golden goose" of the Chinese economy, then doesn't this logic chain imply that the "big bad CCP" has strong incentives to green its coastal cities?

6.  Hundreds of thousands of Chinese students are studying in the USA.  Many will return to China. How does this "trade" in ideas influence the development of a nation?  How does the United States in the year 2015 drive global economic growth?