On December 3rd 2014, Dr. Paolo Epifani, head of the School of Economics at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China and Professor of International Economics at the University of Nottingham visited PHBS to give a speech about his latest research. His primary focus is on the theory and empirics of international trade. His recent work has dealt with the effects of globalization and trade policy on: domestic and international institutions, international specialization as well as income distribution and wage inequality.
Dr. Paolo Epifani received his Ph.D. in Economics from the Università Politecnica delle Marche and a Master in Economics from Bocconi University. He has been a Professor of International Economics at the University of Nottingham, as well as the Universities of Nottingham Ningbo China and Bocconi.
In his allocation at PHBS, he spoke about trade imbalances and their role in the latest wave of globalization. Dr Epifani thinks that the welfare effects of trade are creating imbalances, which are not fully understood because trade models generally assume trade to be balanced. As a consequence, the trade theory does not fully address some important issues. For instance, the rise of China, whose integration into the world economy was accompanied by large and growing trade surpluses, raises the question of whether this type of trade integration harmed or benefited China and its trading main trade partners.
Written by Hicham Lefnaoui
