Justin Yifu Lin

Justin spent five years as chief economist at the World Bank, joining in June 2008 as the international banking crisis gathered momentum. As the World Bank's first chief economist from the developing world, Justin brought his key interests of climate change and the impact of the evolving financial crisis on developing countries.

Before his World Bank role, Justin was Professor and Founding Director of the China Centre for Economic Research (CCER) at Peking University for 15 years. He has written many books on China, including “The China Miracle: Development Strategy and Economic Reform”, “State-owned Enterprise Reform in China” and the highly regarded “Quest for Prosperity” (2012). His latest book “Against the Consensus:Reflections on the Great Recession” (2013) draws on his World Bank experience and offers views on the cause of the crisis, why it is so serious and widespread and its likely evolution. Arguing that conventional theories provide inadequate solutions, he proposes new initiatives for achieving global stability and avoiding the recurrence of similar crises in the future.

Justin is professor and honorary dean at the National School of Development at Peking University. Justin is originally from Taiwan but defected to China in 1979 during his Taiwan military service.