Professor Park will address the changes that have occurred in the Chinese labor market over the past quarter century, focusing on the extent to which labor market reforms have successfully created a well-functioning market for labor with a high degree of labor mobility. Like other rapidly growing developing countries, China has experienced rapid structural change featuring a steady flow of labor from agriculture to industry, and from rural areas to urban areas. As a transition economy, China has shifted gradually from planned allocation of labor in state-sector jobs to a more open labor market. Although the large magnitudes of these changes are impressive, reform of the labor market has been halting, uneven, and difficult, with much additional reform still required. Prof. Park will look at several dimensions of the Chinese labor market: labor allocation, wage setting, regional differences, and ownership sectors. He will conclude by discussing the key policy challenges that lie ahead.

Albert Park is Associate Professor of Economics and Faculty Associate of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan. He is also a research affiliate at the Population Studies Center and chairs the faculty steering committee for Michigan's China Data Center. Dr. Park has been a visiting professor and researcher at Harvard University and Peking University, as well as other research institutions in China and Taiwan, and has served as a consultant for the World Bank on several projects analyzing economic development issues in China, including the Bank's current China Poverty Assessment project. Dr. Park earned a Ph.D. in applied economics from the Food Research Institute and Department of Economics at Stanford University in 1996. His research interests include economic development, economic transition, labor, applied microeconomics, and the Chinese economy. He is involved in numerous collaborative research activities in China, including several large survey projects to study labor market developments in urban areas, and rural education, health, and labor outcomes. He has published over thirty journal articles and chapters in edited volumes, and is the coeditor of a forthcoming volume titled Education and Reform in China. At Michigan, he teaches a graduate course on the microeconomics of development and an undergraduate course on the Chinese economy.

This series is co-sponsored with the Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford University.

Having developed domain expertise in offshore outsourcing of software development services, some Indian IT companies have moved up the value chain and expanded the sophistication of their offerings. For example, Tata Consultancy Services has developed unique competence and intellectual property in areas such as automation of software development, engineering services, life sciences, and enterprise software products, through investments in R&D. Dr. Shroff's presentation will discuss the increasing role of R&D and intellectual property in the Indian IT industry with TCS as a leading example.

Prior to joining TCS in 1998, Dr. Shroff had been on the faculty of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA, after which he joined the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India. Dr. Shroff graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, in 1985 and received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY, USA, in 1990.

China's economic growth and integration with global markets is restructuring the world economy and raising issues important to the future of US companies and workers. In the US market, we hear concerns over a range of Chinese trade practices, including subsidies, dumping; and the exchange rate. In the China market, lack of enforcement of IP protections and non-market behaviors, such as subsidies and industrial policies, give rise to concerns that the deck is being stacked against US companies. At the same time, US exports to China continue to grow rapidly and US invested companies report strong profits. Many also note that low cost imports from China keep the cost of living in the US low and enhance the competiveness of some US companies in global markets. President Bush has described our relations with China as "complex." Our economic relationship is the embodiment of that description.

Henry A. (Hank) Levine serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Asia in the International Trade Administration's office of Market Access and Compliance. His responsibilities include the market access concerns and compliance with international trade agreements that affect U.S. companies operating in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Mongolia, and the member countries of ASEAN. In his career State Department Foreign Service Officer, Mr. Levine has served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Europe, the U.S. Consul General in Shanghai, China and Deputy Director for Economic Affairs in the State Department's Office of Chinese Affairs. Mr. Levine has a B.A. in Political Science from Bucknell University. He did graduate work in international affairs at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is a 1993 graduate, with distinction, from the U.S. National War College. He is fluent in Chinese (Mandarin).

Series Co-sponsored with the Center for East Asian Studies.

The talk will focus on David Michael's recent research into the globalization strategies of companies from China, India, and other rapidly developing economies. Increasingly, companies such as Haier, Huawei, CNOOC, Wipro, Bharat Forge, and Lenovo are emerging on the global stage. What strategies are these companies using, and what implications do they pose for their more-established competitors from developed markets? How are these companies leveraging engineering talent, low costs, and market access in their home countries? How do they approach global market entry, organizational development, and mergers and acquisitions? Which global industries are most threatened? What opportunities do such companies present to Western players? Which are the "most promising" new companies--the ones that you haven't yet heard of?

David Michael heads BCG's Beijing office and is on the global leadership teams of BCG's Technology and Communications practice and Operations practice. He has advised clients in various industries in the region for more than a decade and has worked in more than ten Chinese provinces. He holds a B.A. in economics magna cum laude from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University, where he was awarded the Ernest W. Arbuckle award for outstanding class member. He was also a Rotary Scholar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong during the 1989-1990 school year.