Abstract

In this webinar, Professor Leonard K Cheng will talk about a joint paper (with Gregory W. Whitten and Jingbo Hua) that was published in April 2020 but back-dated to 2019. As this webinar series is about “research sharing”, instead of focusing exclusively on the paper’s findings, Professor Cheng will talk about why the topic was chosen, and what kind of research could be conducted given the choice of the subject matter, which in turn determines the kind of answers that could be sought. As part of the questions raised, Professor Cheng will also briefly summarize the main findings with regard to the Trump Administration’s tariffs on iron and steel, exclusion from the US market of any telecom equipment made by Huawei and attempts to pressure US allies to exclude Huawei’s 5G technology from their markets, as well as blocking Huawei and other Chinese direct investment in the US, all on the grounds of national security, a reason that before Trump was used only rarely by the US or any other members of the WTO.

In the latter part of this talk, Professor Cheng will give views on what he regards as worthwhile economic research partly based on his observations of paper presentations at the annual meetings of the American Economic Association. Professor Cheng will also share the differential citations of his own publications and see if the outcomes are consistent with what he personally regards as more worthwhile research. He would encourage young researchers to think about the question of worthwhile research as they embark on their research career.     

Biography of speaker

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