书林漫步 A Walk in the Books

From Click to Boom: The Political Economy of E-commerce in China

Time: April 17, 10:00 AM - 11:40 AM

Language: English

Venue: Room 209, University Library

Event Details:

• Keynote Speaker: Professor Liu Lizhi
• Assistant Professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Government.
• Research focuses on the politics of trade, technology, innovation, and China's political economy.
• Publications include American Economic Review: Insights, Studies in Comparative International Development, and Minnesota Law Review.
• Awards include the 2019 APSA Best Paper Award in Information Technology and Politics and the 2020 SIOE Ronald H. Coase Best Dissertation Award.
• Named one of Poets & Quants' "50 Best Undergraduate Business Professors" in 2021.
• Host: Professor Kang Siqin
• Assistant Professor in the Division of Development and Governance, School of Humanities and Social Science, CUHK-Shenzhen.
• Research areas include public opinion, state capacity, and digital governance.
• Discussant: Professor Richard Carney
• Associate Professor in the Division of Global and Regional Studies, School of Humanities and Social Science, CUHK-Shenzhen.
• Research interests focus on business-government relations in emerging economies.
• Author of Authoritarian Capitalism: Sovereign Wealth Funds and State-Owned Enterprises in East Asia and Beyond, which won the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize.
• Forthcoming book: China's Leading Edge: Gaining Global Influence Through Infrastructure Development and Digitalization.
• Published numerous research papers in top international journals, including Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of International Business Studies, and Review of International Political Economy.
• Extensive experience teaching mid-to-senior level managers and government officials in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia.
• Academic advisor for the World Bank's flagship research project "State and Firm."
• Discussant: Dr. Huang Jingyang
• Research Assistant Professor in the Division of Social Science, HKUST.
• Former Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (2022-2023).
• Research focuses on comparative political economy, comparative public policy, and Chinese politics.
• Published over a dozen papers in journals such as China Journal and Chinese Public Administration.

Book Description:

In just two decades, China has built a massive e-commerce market with 800 million users, accounting for nearly half of global online retail sales. However, the rapid rise of this market is surprising—e-commerce, as a domain filled with small sellers, non-face-to-face transactions, and exchanges between strangers, typically requires well-established market institutions to ensure contract enforcement and prevent fraud. So, how did China achieve explosive growth in e-commerce, even surpassing many developed countries with mature legal systems, during a period when its legal institutions were still underdeveloped?

From Click to Boom uncovers the reasons behind this phenomenon. Author Liu Lizhi, Assistant Professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, argues that the institutional foundation of China's e-commerce rise lies in the collaboration between the government and platforms, termed "institutional outsourcing."

The book delves into the political logic and far-reaching implications of this "institutional outsourcing," revealing how platforms and the state collaborate to build new governance models in developing countries with weak institutional foundations. It also highlights the delicate balance the Chinese government strikes between encouraging institutional innovation and controlling platform power. Based on over a decade of research, including extensive interviews, original surveys, millions of platform data points, and a randomized controlled trial across three provinces, the book provides an in-depth analysis of the profound impact of e-commerce prosperity on Chinese society and explores the implications of this model for institutional development in other countries.