Special Lecture by Professor Danyang XIE from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)
As part of our school's internationalization of graduate education, we invited Professor Danyang XIE, a macroeconomist who has been at the forefront of world economic research, especially in the field of endogenous economic growth, to give a special lecture in the International Macroeconomics course during the second semester of this academic year. Prof. XIE is not only an excellent researcher but also a very passionate educator. By using the latest scientific tools to stimulate graduate students' interest in learning and research, Prof. XIE gave our students a fresh and challenging Flipped-Classroom session on December 4th, 2023.
Professor Danyang XIE is the Chair Professor of the Thrust of Innovation, Policy, and Entrepreneurship at the Society Hub, HKUST (Guangzhou), and the Chair Professor of Economics at HKUST. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1992. His research interests include endogenous economic growth, fiscal policy, and money and banking. He has published several influential research articles in prestigious academic journals, including the Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic Theory, International Economic Review, Journal of Monetary Economics, among others.
The depreciation of RMB is a matter of great concern in China and is also relevant for trading nations such as Japan. In his Kobe Special Lecture on RMB Exchange Rate Policy, Professor XIE introduced our students to a recent research paper by Jermann, Wei, and Yue on China's "two-pillar" policy for the RMB. Under the flipped-classroom arrangement, our students followed Prof. XIE's instructions and started to read and discuss the paper in English. Starting from the five warm-up questions that Prof. XIE prepared and distributed in advance, our students were guided to understand why China, as the second-largest economy, pays so much attention to balancing its exchange rate flexibility and stability. The econometric parts showed the students what the real economy looks like, while in the theory parts, Prof. XIE guided our students to follow a logical study, step by step, for an overall understanding.
It was a great challenge for our students to study original research articles from top academic journals, answer questions, and discuss with each other in English in a few days. However, their efforts and growth, including those of the undergraduate students, were very impressive. It was a gratifying experience to see the students, who were so shy to speak at the beginning, finally able to discuss with each other. We look forward to many more of these challenging opportunities in the future.
Click here for Professor Danyang XIE’s profile (website of HKUST).
