On June 21-23, 2018, IESR Research Center for International Trade and Firms (CITF) hosted The Second Workshop on Firms in Emerging Economies, bringing up scholars from all around the world to present their latest research on industrial economics, international trade, enterprise development and innovation policy, hence becoming an international platform for facilitating comprehensive comparison of worldwide running microenterprises data.

The workshop centered on the following themes: innovation and technology upgrading in China; production networks; industrial organization; data benchmarking; financial deepening; labor in China, China in global production; and government policy.

As Dan Trefler (Toronto University) reflected, the workshop was indeed a great success, giving everyone an exceptional opportunity to gain a lot from it. When doing a research, he believes, it is not only one’s own point of view that should matter, but rather the ideas and experiences of the people who come from different cultures. The line of thought of scholars who are immersed in the research based on Chinese data – that was something D. Trefler learned the most from during this workshop, and which will definitely benefit him greatly in his future work. 

Others also agreed that the workshop was of great value to them, as it laid a solid knowledge foundation on the development of Chinese economy, along with its vigorous innovations in related areas. As Kalina Manova (University College London) pointed out, Workshop on Firms in Emerging Economies had given her a deeper understanding of Southern region of China and its economic development, which was exactly what K. Manova needed – now she is fully able to work on the comparative analysis of North–South China economic development.

Here are a few moments from the Workshop on Firms in Emerging Economies 2018.