Research Interests

Biography

Albert Park is a development and labor economist who is an expert on China’s economic development. He is Head and Chair Professor of Economics, Chair Professor of Social Science, Professor of Public Policy, and Director of the Center for Economic Policy at HKUST. His research and commentary has appeared in the Economist, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, China Daily, BBC, CNN, NBC, Bloomberg, Freakonomics, and NPR. Professor Park is a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (London), the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA, Bonn), the International Growth Centre (Oxford/LSE/DFID), and the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group (Chicago). He co-chairs the Academic Committee of the China Economics Summer Institute, chairs the International Advisory Committee of the China-Russia Eurasian Studies Center, and serves on the Leadership Council of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Hong Kong and on the International Advisory Council of the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO. In recent years he has published articles in leading economics journals on firm performance, poverty and inequality, migration and employment, health and education, and the economics of aging in China. He is an editor of the Journal of Pension Economics and Finance and on the editorial boards of the World Bank Economic Review, Cambridge University Press Elements Series in the Economics of Emerging Markets, Asian Development Review, China Economic Journal, China Policy Journal, and China Agricultural Economics Review. Prof. Park has played a leadership role in numerous survey research projects in China including the China Employer-Employee Survey (CEES), the China Urban Labor Survey (CULS), the Gansu Survey of Children and Families (GSCF), and the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). He previously held faculty appointments at the University of Michigan and Oxford University, and has consulted frequently for the World Bank.

PUBLICATIONS

• Giles, John, Albert Park, and Meiyan Wang. "The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Disruptions to Schooling, and the Returns to Schooling in Urban China", Economic Development and Cultural Change, 68(1): 131-164, 2019.

• Karachiwalla, Naureen, and Albert Park, Promotion Incentives in the Public Sector: Evidence from Chinese Schools, Journal of Public Economics, 146: 109-128, 2017.

• Park, Albert, and Sangui Wang, “Benefiting from Disaster?: Public and Private Responses to the Wenchuan Earthquake,” World Development, 94(C): 38-50, 2017.

• Glewwe, Paul, Qiuqiong Huang, and Albert Park. Cognitive Skills, Noncognitive Skills, and School-to-Work Transitions in Rural China, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organizations, 134: 141–164, 2017.

• Shu Cai, and Albert Park, “Permanent Income and Subjective Well-being,” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 130: 298-319, 2016.

• Glewwe, Paul, Albert Park, and Meng Zhao, “A Better Vision for Development: Eyeglasses and Academic Performance in Rural Primary Schools in China,” Journal of Development Economics 122: 170-182, 2016.

• Park, Albert, Xinzheng Shi, Chang-tai Hsieh, and Xuehui An, "Magnet High Schools and Academic Performance in China: A Regression Discontinuity Design,” Journal of Comparative Economics, 43(4): 825-843, 2015

• Park, Albert, and Yan Shen, “Understanding Wealth and Housing Inequality among China’s Older Population,” China Economic Journal, 8(3): 288-307, 2015.

• Gallagher, Mary, John Giles, Albert Park, and Meiyan Wang, “China’s 2008 Labor Contract Law: Implementation and Impacts on Workers,” Human Relations, 68(2) 197–235, 2015.

• Abhijeet Singh, Albert Park, and Stefan Dercon, “School Meals as a Social Safety Net: An Evaluation of the Midday Meal Scheme in India,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, 62(2): 275 – 306, 2014.

• Park, Albert, and Xiaobo Qu, “Informality, Returns to Education, and Labour Market Integration in China,” Indian Journal of Labor Economics 56(4): 617-634, 2013.

• Cai, Hongbin, Hongbin Li, Albert Park, and Li-an Zou, “Family Ties and Organizational Design: Evidence from Chinese Private Firms,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 95(3): 850-867, 2013.

• Mangyo, Eiji, and Albert Park. “Relative Deprivation and Health: Which Reference Groups Matter?” Journal of Human Resources 46(3): 459-481, 2011.

• Park, Albert, Dean Yang, Xinzheng Shi, and Yuan Jiang. “Exporting and Firm Performance: Chinese Exporters and the Asian Financial Crisis,” Review of Economics and Statistics 92(4): 822–842, 2010.

• Park, Albert, and Sangui Wang. “Community Development and Poverty Alleviation: An Evaluation of China’s Poor Village Investment Program,” Journal of Public Economics, 94(9-10): 790-799, 2010.

• Park, Albert, and Minggao Shen. “Refinancing and Decentralization: Evidence from China,” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organizations 66(3-4): 703-730, 2008.

• Giles, John, Albert Park, and Fang Cai. “Re-employment of Dislocated Workers in Urban China: the Roles of Information and Incentives,” Journal of Comparative Economics 34(3): 582-607, 2006.

• Park, Albert. “Risk and Household Grain Management in Developing Countries,” The Economic Journal 116(514): 1088-1115, 2006.

• Du, Yang, Albert Park, and Sangui Wang. “Migration and Rural Poverty in China,” Journal of Comparative Economics 33(4): 688-709, 2005.

• Zhang, Junsen, Yaohui Zhao, Albert Park, Xiaoqing Song,. “Economic Returns to Schooling in Urban China, 1988 to 2001,” Journal of Comparative Economics 33(4): 730-752, 2005.

• Park, Albert, and Minggao Shen. “Joint Liability Lending and the Rise and Fall of China’s Township and Village Enterprises,” Journal of Development Economics 71: 497-531, 2003.

• Park, Albert, Loren Brandt, and John Giles. “Competition Under Credit Rationing: Theory and Evidence from Rural China,” Journal of Development Economics 71: 463-495, 2003.

• Park, Albert, Sangui Wang, and Guobao Wu. “Regional Poverty Targeting in China,” Journal of Public Economics 86(1): 123-153, 2002.