Mark Dallas, "Manufacturing Paradoxes: China, East Asia, and Global Production"

The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University presents a talk with Mark Dallas on the influence of the fragmentation of global production and regional production networks on development in China.

With a close look at particular industries over time, Mark Dallas examines the influence of the fragmentation of global production and regional production networks on development in China. His research uses unique US and Chinese customs bureau trade data at the firm level to illustrate China’s position in East Asian production hierarchies and regional divisions of labor. Contrary to conventional wisdom of China’s manufacturing prowess, his talk proposes that China’s domestic manufacturers remain in a relatively weak position within East Asian production networks. In addition, China’s international integration into global production networks has presented Chinese policy makers with political and policy trade-offs very different from those faced by the prior generation of export-oriented industrializers, with profound implications for China’s regional economies and producer groups.

Mark Dallas is assistant professor of political science and Asian studies at Union College, New York. He received his PhD in political science from the University of California at Berkeley in 2011. His dissertation, “New Roads to Capitalism: China and Global Value Chains,” was nominated for the American Political Science Association’s Mancur Olsen Dissertation Award for Political Economy.