Zhang Wuchang

Zhang Wuchang

Zhang Wuchang, born in Hong Kong in 1935, is an internationally renowned economist.

He is one of the representatives of new institutional economics. He graduated from the Economics Department of UCLA and is one of the founders of modern new institutional economics and modern property economics.

His book "theory of tenant farmers" won the political economy award of the University of Chicago.

Biography of characters

1935 - born on the second floor, 12 Tai Fu Street, Sai Wan Ho, Hong Kong.

1938 - I went to the kindergarten next door. My teacher was Miss Wu, who was in the same school with her brother.

From 1941 to December, Japan occupied Hong Kong, then went to Macao, Huizhou and Qujiang (now Shaoguan), and finally took refuge in Guilin and Liuzhou of Guangxi.

1945 - after returning to Hong Kong, he studied at Huaying middle school in Foshan, Guangdong Province. He failed in the entrance examination and was demoted after entering a higher school. Finally, he was expelled.

1948 - studied in Wan Chai college, Hong Kong.

1952 - studied in Hong Kong Huangren college. In the first year, he repeats his grade. After one year of rereading, he still fails by one point in Chinese, so he is expelled from school.

1954 - worked in my father's literary career in Hong Kong and studied photography.

1954 - went to Toronto, Canada to study without success, once engaged in photography.

1959 - studied business at UCLA, then transferred to economics.

1961 - Master's degree, tutor hershulafa.

1963 - doctoral degree, doctoral qualification oral examination, tutor heshulafa and founder of modern industrial economics AI Zhiren.

In 1967, he completed his doctoral dissertation "theory of tenant farming: citing China's agriculture and Taiwan's land reform" in Changdi University, which caused a sensation in western economic circles. In the same year, he went to the University of Chicago to do postdoctoral research, and worked with Friedman and Coase, the Nobel laureates in economy.

1969 - transferred to the University of Washington in Seattle, and was employed as a professor.

1982 - head of the Department of economics and finance, University of Hong Kong.

In 1991, as the only economist who did not win the Nobel Prize, he was invited to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony.

In 1997, he was elected president of the western economic society of the United States.

2000 - retirement. And began to write economic explanation.

In 2002, he visited many universities and gave speeches, which set off a "Zhang Wuchang fever" in mainland China.

2003 -- wanted by the US government for tax evasion, and commissioned a lawyer to sue the US government.

2008 - for Ronald Coase（ RonaldH.Coase , 1910-2013) wrote a small book "China's economic system", which was highly praised.

Zhang Wuchang has always been arrogant and uninhibited. He likes to make wild talk and is known as "crazy life" in the economic circle.

Important experience

Seeking a career as a student

In his early years, he studied under the master of modern new institutional economics, Amen alcian; he worked with the masters of modern property rights, Coase and bazer, for many years, and their thoughts influenced and inspired each other. Coase said that Zhang Wuchang was the person who knew the true meaning of his thoughts best; he had a good relationship with most Nobel Laureates in economics, and Zhang Wuchang's home in Hong Kong often became the bridgehead for them to enter China He accompanied Friedman to China to talk about the importance of China's reform with state leaders. He was also invited to participate in the Nobel prize awarding ceremony and was honored as a guest. He was elected president of the western economic society of the United States from 1997 to 1998. This is the first time that he has been awarded a special honor to economists outside the United States, and so on.

Among economists in the Chinese speaking world, I am afraid there will be no one like this. However, this is only one aspect of Zhang Wuchang. On the other hand, Zhang Wuchang is also the best economic essayist in the Chinese language world, and his "orange seller's speech" is very popular. He is a famous photographer, who can compete with the famous Hong Kong Photographer Jian Qingfu and others. He knows the art of calligraphy very well. When talking about the art of calligraphy in China, he is very happy The feeling is overflowing in the table.

Doctoral dissertations make a big hit

Since 1959, Zhang Wuchang entered the University of California, Los Angeles to study. At the beginning of 1966, Zhang Wuchang took the title of "tenant Theory: Agriculture in Asia and land reform in Taiwan" as the opening report of his doctoral dissertation, and wrote an 11 page outline, hoping to listen to the opinions of teachers. At that time, Amen Alchian was Zhang Wuchang's tutor.

Zhang Wuchang's theory of tenant farmers later became the first work of modern contract economics. Several of them have become classics of modern new institutional economics since they were published in journals.

The friendship with Coase is highly appreciated

Johnson was an authority on the theory of tenant farmers at that time, and Zhang Wuchang made a lot of analysis on him. Johnson not only didn't mind, but also repeatedly urged Hershey to urge Zhang Wuchang to apply for the annual bonus of the University. In the autumn of 1967, Zhang Wuchang worked in the University of Chicago, and visited Coase in the Law School of the University of Chicago a few days after the beginning of school. Zhang Wuchang and Coase became good friends. When Zhang Wuchang arrived in Hong Kong in the 1980s, a professor passed by and told him a story:

Coase went to their university to give a speech, and the audience was packed. In his speech, Coase put it bluntly that all the people who quoted his ideas quoted them incorrectly. When it came time to ask a personal question, one of the audience asked, "is there a person who quotes your thoughts correctly in today's world?" Coase replied, "only Zhang Wuchang.". No wonder Coase mentioned Professor Zhang Wuchang's great contribution to the new institutional economics many times in his speech at the Nobel prize awarding ceremony in 1991.

"The worst teacher"

In 1991, Zhang Wuchang was elected as the "worst teacher" in the "worst Teaching Award" held by the University of Hong Kong. Zhang Wuchang won the bad seat, almost all of Hong Kong was in an uproar! In fact, this is very natural. If we follow the traditional Oriental Education Model and standards, Zhang Wuchang's teaching will certainly not meet his requirements.

Zhang Wuchang never prepared lessons, gave no handouts, and did not write on the blackboard. In his opinion, preparing lessons for economics, which he thinks about every day, is unnecessary. Even if it is a speech on a formal occasion, he will not have much preparation (such as the speech to many Nobel Prize winners in Sweden in 1991 and the speech to the president of the western economic society in the United States in 1998).

The first person to analyze China's economic system

Zhang Wuchang is the first person to systematically apply the new institutional analysis to the study of China's economic problems. Zhang Wuchang is personally passed down by the famous masters of new institutional economics, such as Coase, Amen Alchian and Demsetz. He has worked with North and bazer for many years, and has been influenced by them. A generation of New Institutional Economics Masters are about to emerge. Coase mentioned Zhang Wuchang's contribution to New Institutional Economics many times in his Nobel Prize speech, and North also mentioned Zhang Wuchang's contribution to his economic thought many times influence. Zhang Wuchang's greatest contribution to the new institutional economics should be to systematically introduce the method of institutional analysis into the study of China's economic problems.

As early as the end of 1960s, Zhang Wuchang applied the analysis method of property right system to the land reform in Taiwan and established the "new tenancy theory". Zhang Wuchang put forward his own views on China's agricultural reform, urban enterprise reform, China's financial reform and China's corruption through pure institutional analysis.

It can be said that throughout the 1980s, Zhang Wuchang completely devoted himself to the institutional analysis and policy suggestions of China's economic reform. His works in Hong Kong, such as "the orange seller's speech", "China's future", "re discussing China's future" and "China's economic revolution", which were written in Chinese, were very popular for a time, and influenced a whole generation of reformers and young students in China.

Main achievements

Academic contribution: his belief in the importance of property rights affecting economic behavior made him focus on all aspects of transaction costs. His several important academic papers made him one of the founders of new institutional economics. Ronald Coase, the winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize in economics, pointed out in his speech that Zhang Wuchang and two other economists had also made outstanding contributions to the achievements. He is currently writing the economic interpretation of the book, which is the essence of decades of academic research.

Professor Zhang Wuchang had many works. When he was a student, he came to the fore in the field of economics with a copy of the theory of tenant farmers. After returning to Hong Kong, he wrote a series of column articles in Chinese and gained extensive influence in the Chinese language world. His representative works are "orange seller's speech", "China's future", "re discussing China" and so on. Since 2000, he has finished three volumes of economic work "economic interpretation", and published the English academic anthology "selected English papers of Zhang Wuchang" (economicex) at the end of 2005 planation:SelectedpapersofStevenNSCheung )。 It is also regarded as one of the five classics of economics by Zhang Pingsheng.

1. Classic works

As time goes on, the value of the theory of tenant farmers becomes more and more important. It has not only become the first work of modern contract economics, but also one of the most important works

After several articles published in journals, they have become classic works of modern new institutional economics. For example, in the book transaction cost economics published by Edward Elgar press, two of the 40 most influential and representative articles of this school are the main chapters of tenant theory. The theory of sharecropper mainly makes a new explanation of SHARETENANCY from the perspective of modern new institutional economics, overthrows the traditional theory and establishes a new system

Chinese PinYin : Zhang Wu Chang