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UNU-MERIT and MGSoG Joint Seminar Series
UNU-MERIT - a joint research and training centre of United Nations University and Maastricht University, and the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG), have launched a joint monthly Seminar Series. The seminars will disseminate the latest research findings and encourage broad-based discussions on key global issues on development, innovation, international policy and governance with a focus on developing countries context.
The Seminar Series aims to bridge the sometimes artificial divide made between academic research, and policy formulation and implementation. The complex processes of globalization being experienced by all countries today necessitate a proactive and knowledge-based approach to policymaking that is supported by evidence-based research. The seminar speakers are renowned international specialists and seasoned policy practitioners with first hand experience in integrating multiple perspectives into day to day decision-making.
Seminar schedule
| 2008-09-09 |
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| Wing Thye Woo is Professor in the Department of Economics, University of California at Davis. He
is also Senior Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program, and the Foreign Policy
Studies Program at Brookings Institution, and the Director of the East Asia Program within the Center
for Globalisation and Sustainable Development at Columbia University. His current research focuses
on the economic issues of East Asia (particularly, China and Indonesia), international financial
architecture, economic growth, and exchange rate economics. He has published over 100 articles in
professional economic journals and books on these topics His article "The Monetary Approach to
Exchange Rate Determination under Rational Expectations: The Dollar-Deutschemark Case," Journal
of International Economics (JIE) , February 1985, was identified by JIE in 2000 to be one of the
twenty-five most cited articles in its 30 years of history.
From 1994-96, Wing Thye Woo led an international team (which included Leszek Balcerowicz, Boris
Fedorov, and Jeffrey D. Sachs) to study the reform experiences of centrally-planned economies. This
report was published by MIT Press as Economies in Transition: Comparing Asia and Europe, 1997.
In 1998, Wing Thye Woo headed the project “Asia Competitiveness Report 1999” to analyse the Asian
financial crisis for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, February
1999. The updated report was published as The Asian Financial Crisis: Lessons for a Resilient Asia,
MIT Press, 2000. In 2001, Wing Thye Woo helped establish the Asian Economic Panel (AEP), now
sponsored by Columbia University, Keio University, and the Korea Institute for International
Economic Policy. AEP is a forum of about 50 leading specialists on Asian economies which meets
twice a year to discuss economic issues that are of particular importance to Asia. Selected papers from
the meetings are published in the new journal Asian Economic Papers (of which Wing Thye Woo is
the editor), MIT Press.
Wing Thye Woo has advised a number of governments on macroeconomic and exchange rate
management, state enterprise restructuring, trade issues, and financial sector development. He was a
member of Consultant Team to China's Ministry of Finance that helped to design the tax and exchange
rate reforms implemented in January 1994; and the report has been published by Oxford University
Press as Fiscal Management and Economic Reform in the People's Republic of China, 1995. During
1997-1998, Wing Thye Woo served as a special advisor to the U.S. Treasury; duties included
accompanying Secretary Robert Rubin to meetings in China, and to the IMF-World Bank annual
meeting in Hong Kong. From 2002-2005, he was the Special Advisor for East Asian Economies in the
Millennium Project of the United Nations. In July 2005, he was appointed to the International
Advisory Panel to the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
In 2004, the University of California at Davis awarded Wing Thye Woo its Distinguished Scholarly
Public Service Award, and the Institute of Strategic and International Studies in Malaysia appointed
him a Distinguished ISIS Fellow. In November 2004, he delivered the Chang Chi Ming Cambridge
Public Lecture on Chinese Economy at the University of Cambridge. In March 2006, he was
appointed a Chang Jiang Scholar (by the Ministry of Education of China based on nation-wide
competition among universities) at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, China.
Wing Thye Woo was born in 1954 in Penang, Malaysia, where he was a member of the 2nd.
Georgetown (S) Senior Scout Troop, out of Methodist Boys' School. He graduated from Swarthmore
College in 1976 with a B.A. (High Honors) in Economics, and a B.S. in Engineering; received an M.A.
in Economics from Yale in 1978, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard in 1982. |
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Register for this seminar |
 We believe that scientific exploration and explanation are adventurous endeavours requiring discipline and creativity. The objective is to enhance ingenuity in technical and in political matters. The School provides an academic forum to discuss, to discover and to learn in an open-minded atmosphere. Scholarly research is matched by socially embedded curiosity and by the desire to contribute to the analytical mapping of problems and solutions. The relevance of the topics, the scholarly quality of the contributions and the international scope of the organizing institutes, turn these joint seminars into sessions in an intellectual powerhouse.
Prof. Dr. Chris de Neubourg, Academic Director, MGSOG |
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 The facilitation of regular policy discussions is an important aspect of our research mission. As a part of the international and local university community, UNU-MERIT hopes to contribute to insights on global issues that global and local policymakers are concerned about. The joint seminars will help to expose our research community to the practical realities of the national and international governance of science, technology and innovation. This ensures that our research and policy analysis remains relevant, and will hopefully, even if it is only indirectly, contribute to the poverty reduction and sustainable development goals that are at the heart of the mission of the UNU.
Prof. Dr. Luc Soete, Director, UNU-MERIT |
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About UNU-MERIT
UNU-MERIT is a joint research and training centre of United Nations University (UNU) and Maastricht University in the Netherlands. UNU-MERIT provides insights into the social, political and economic factors that drive technological change and innovation. The Centre's research and training programmes address a broad range of policy questions relating to the national and international governance of science, technology and innovation, with a particular focus on the creation, diffusion and access to knowledge.
About MGSoG
The Maastricht Graduate School of Governance seeks to train experts who become a pivotal element in national social governance focused on making national social protection systems economically, financially and socially more sustainable. The main objective of the School is to create a critical mass of researchers, specialized in social protection and public policy, that are able to provide necessary practical advice based on sound research. The School believes that the combination of knowledge and skills is essential for communicating research results and is therefore integrated in its Master’s, PhD and training programmes.
For more information please visit the online calendar at www.merit.unu.edu or www.governance.unimaas.nl |
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