Blue Skies over Beijing: Economic Growth and the Environment in China

Over the last 30 years, even as China's economy has grown by leaps and bounds, the environmental quality of its urban centers has precipitously declined due to heavy industrial output and coal consumption. The country is currently the world's largest greenhouse-gas emitter and several of the most polluted cities in the world are in China, yet millions of people continue moving to its cities seeking opportunities. 

Professor Kahn will provide an overview of his upcoming book “Blue Skies over Beijing,” co-authored with Siqi Zheng (Princeton University Press). In this book, the authors investigate the ways that China's urban development impacts local and global environmental challenges. Using the historical evolution of American cities as a comparison, the authors predict that as China's economy moves away from heavy manufacturing toward cleaner sectors, many of China's cities should experience environmental progress in upcoming decades.

Dr. Matthew Kahn, Professor of Economics at University of Southern California

Dr. Matthew Kahn is Professor of Economics at USC, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Research Fellow at IZA.  He also serves as a Non-Resident Scholar at the NYU Stern School of Business at the Urbanization Project and as a Non-Resident Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Urban Research.  He has taught at Columbia, the Fletcher School at Tufts University and UCLA.  He has served as a Visiting Professor at Harvard and Stanford and as the Low Tuck Kwong Distinguished Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore.  He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago. He is the author of “Green Cities: Urban Growth and the Environment” (Brookings Institution Press, 2006) and the co-author (with Dora L. Costa) of “Heroes and Cowards: The Social Face of War” (Princeton University Press, 2009) and “Climatopolis” (Basic Books, 2010).  In May 2016, Princeton University Press will publish his book “Blue Skies over Beijing: Economic Growth and the Environment in China” (with Siqi Zheng). His research focuses on environmental, energy and urban economics. 

Professor Kahn will be a Visiting Scholar at the Kleinman Center for a week in March 2016.