Peter Lorentzen's guest appearances

Peter Lorentzen

Sinica Podcast

Data Science Imposters Podcast

ChinaTalk

Matt Sheehan

Scott Kennedy

Samm Sacks

Paul Triolo

Bo Xilai

Wang Huning

Wendy Cutler

Adam Tooze

Rana Mitter

Peter Hessler

Evan Osnos

Ryan Hass

Bill Bishop

Ma Tianjie

Jason Wu

OwlTail

Is the ongoing anti-corruption drive a sincere effort to root out official wrongdoing? Or is it a political purge of the enemies of Xí Jìnpíng 习近平? These questions have been hotly debated since the outset of the campaign in 2013. Now Peter Lorentzen of the University of San Francisco and Xi Lu of the National University of Singapore have harnessed data to examine the anti-corruption drive in the hopes of settling the question. Kaiser sat down with Peter on the sidelines of the recent Association for Asian Studies Conference to talk about the findings in their paper, “Personal Ties, Meritocracy, and China’s Anti-Corruption Campaign.” What to listen for on this week’s Sinica Podcast: 22:57: Of the many officials that have been purged since 2012, “three big tigers” in particular stand out: Sū Róng 苏荣, Líng Jìhuà 令计划, and Zhōu Yǒngkāng 周永康. Of the provinces Xi Lu and Peter analyzed, economic performance was a large contributing factor for official promotion except for Jiangxi, Shanxi, and Sichuan. Here, Peter provides background on these three officials, their downfall, and the “tiger territories” they previously oversaw. 30:34: In 2012, Bó Xīlái 薄熙来 was considered one of the main contenders to challenge Xi Jinping’s ascent to power. His association with the murder of a British businessman, Neil Heywood, reportedly ordered by his wife, brought a swift end to his political success. However, Peter was surprised by what he found regarding his political network in the aftermath: “If you rank people using the Google PageRank algorithm, you find Bo Xilai was below 20th. What that means, in practice, is that in our data there were not many people reported as being his cronies who were subordinate to him compared to a lot of other people.” 32:42: What does the inability of Politburo Standing Committee members to protect their personal networks say about the current political climate in China? Peter: “Even when you clump all other six Politburo [Standing Committee] members together, we didn’t see a sort of protective effect. Their associates, people we believed to be connected with them, were just as likely to go down as anyone else. So the question is: Why were they not able to protect their people?... This is not something we can observe directly in our data, but my sense is that it does show the demise of the collective leadership, first-among-equals approach.” 39:26: How many people have been subject to the corruption crackdown? Peter studied those who were investigated, whose names were published in reports by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection by 2015. “We’re looking at the first wave of the crackdown, but that was just a thousand people [whose names we could get]. I was looking at some estimates last night, and I think people are saying that the total number as of the end of last year was 20,000 to 30,000 people overall. And you know, they’re not all people who looked wrong at Xi Jinping some day. So it’s pretty clear that he’s got to have some other way of deciding who goes down.” Recommendations: Peter: Two sitcoms, Speechless (available on ABC) and Kim’s Convenience (available on Netflix). Kaiser: Two playlists on Spotify, “Instrumental Madness” and “Got Djent?”This podcast was edited and produced by Kaiser Kuo and Jason MacRonald.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Is the ongoing anti-corruption drive a sincere effort to root out official wrongdoing? Or is it a political purge of the enemies of Xí Jìnpíng 习近平? These questions have been hotly debated since the outset of the campaign in 2013. Now Peter Lorentzen of the University of San Francisco and Xi Lu of the National University of Singapore have harnessed data to examine the anti-corruption drive in the hopes of settling the question. Kaiser sat down with Peter on the sidelines of the recent Association for Asian Studies Conference to talk about the findings in their paper, “Personal Ties, Meritocracy, and China’s Anti-Corruption Campaign.” What to listen for on this week’s Sinica Podcast: 22:57: Of the many officials that have been purged since 2012, “three big tigers” in particular stand out: Sū Róng 苏荣, Líng Jìhuà 令计划, and Zhōu Yǒngkāng 周永康. Of the provinces Xi Lu and Peter analyzed, economic performance was a large contributing factor for official promotion except for Jiangxi, Shanxi, and Sichuan. Here, Peter provides background on these three officials, their downfall, and the “tiger territories” they previously oversaw. 30:34: In 2012, Bó Xīlái 薄熙来 was considered one of the main contenders to challenge Xi Jinping’s ascent to power. His association with the murder of a British businessman, Neil Heywood, reportedly ordered by his wife, brought a swift end to his political success. However, Peter was surprised by what he found regarding his political network in the aftermath: “If you rank people using the Google PageRank algorithm, you find Bo Xilai was below 20th. What that means, in practice, is that in our data there were not many people reported as being his cronies who were subordinate to him compared to a lot of other people.” 32:42: What does the inability of Politburo Standing Committee members to protect their personal networks say about the current political climate in China? Peter: “Even when you clump all other six Politburo [Standing Committee] members together, we didn’t see a sort of protective effect. Their associates, people we believed to be connected with them, were just as likely to go down as anyone else. So the question is: Why were they not able to protect their people?... This is not something we can observe directly in our data, but my sense is that it does show the demise of the collective leadership, first-among-equals approach.” 39:26: How many people have been subject to the corruption crackdown? Peter studied those who were investigated, whose names were published in reports by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection by 2015. “We’re looking at the first wave of the crackdown, but that was just a thousand people [whose names we could get]. I was looking at some estimates last night, and I think people are saying that the total number as of the end of last year was 20,000 to 30,000 people overall. And you know, they’re not all people who looked wrong at Xi Jinping some day. So it’s pretty clear that he’s got to have some other way of deciding who goes down.” Recommendations: Peter: Two sitcoms, Speechless (available on ABC) and Kim’s Convenience (available on Netflix). Kaiser: Two playlists on Spotify, “Instrumental Madness” and “Got Djent?”This podcast was edited and produced by Kaiser Kuo and Jason MacRonald.See Privacy Policy at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy</a> and California Privacy Notice at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info</a>.

Peter Lorentzen's data-driven analysis of Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign

If all you know about economics is ‘supply and demand’, you may be in for a good awakening with our next interviewee.  Dr. Peter Lorentzen is professor in the Economics Department at the University of San Francisco and he is starting a new graduate program in Applied Economics.   With the recent teams of Economists that firms like Uber, Apple, and other Silicon Valley employees are hiring, we wanted to get more details.  After listening to Peter talk to us about the vision for his program, we fully understand the motivation by these companies.  These companies are not the first to hire economists; Bell Labs has done this previously.  According to Peter, the requirements to obtain an economics degree have not changed on the way in and USF is trying to change the skill sets economists get on the way out.  If you’re interested in reading more, you should also read these articles: 1.Why Tech Companies Hire So Many Economists – 2019https://hbr.org/2019/02/why-tech-companies-hire-so-many-economists 2. Amazon gets an edge with its secret squad of PhD economistshttps://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/13/tech/amazon-economists/index.html 3. Goodbye, Ivory Tower. Hello, Silicon Valley Candy Store. 4.Should your tech firm have an economist? by Jed Kolko, Chief Economist at Indeed.

If all you know about economics is ‘supply and demand’, you may be in for a good awakening with our next interviewee. Dr. Peter Lorentzen is professor in the Economics Department at the University of San Francisco and he is starting a new graduate program in Applied Economics. With the recent teams of Economists that firms like Uber, Apple, and other Silicon Valley employees are hiring, we wanted to get more details. After listening to Peter talk to us about the vision for his program, we fully understand the motivation by these companies. These companies are not the first to hire economists; Bell Labs has done this previously. According to Peter, the requirements to obtain an economics degree have not changed on the way in and USF is trying to change the skill sets economists get on the way out. If you’re interested in reading more, you should also read these articles: 1.Why Tech Companies Hire So Many Economists – 2019 <a href="https://hbr.org/2019/02/why-tech-companies-hire-so-many-economists" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://hbr.org/2019/02/why-tech-companies-hire-so-many-economists</a> 2. Amazon gets an edge with its secret squad of PhD economists <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/13/tech/amazon-economists/index.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/13/tech/amazon-economists/index.html</a> 3. Goodbye, Ivory Tower. Hello, Silicon Valley Candy Store. 4.<a href="http://jedkolko.com/2016/02/01/should-your-tech-firm-have-an-economist/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Should your tech firm have an economist? by Jed Kolko, Chief Economist at Indeed</a>.

Economists do Data Science Differently w/ Dr. Peter Lorentzen

Peter Lorentzen, professor of economics at the University of San Francisco, talks protests and provincial politics. We start by discussing 'Designing Contentious Politics in Post-1989 China,' which uses game theory to analyze and explain how the CCP responds to on-the-ground protests. Next, we take on his 'Racing to the Bottom or to the Top? Decentralization, Revenue Pressures, and Governance Reform in China' and explore what actually drives municipal responses to orders from on high. Music this week by 阴三儿, 北京晚报 and 没钱没朋友. Do note that after this episode was recorded, some protests against "low-end population" removal broke out. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peter Lorentzen, professor of economics at the University of San Francisco, talks protests and provincial politics. We start by discussing 'Designing Contentious Politics in Post-1989 China,' which uses game theory to analyze and explain how the CCP responds to on-the-ground protests. Next, we take on his 'Racing to the Bottom or to the Top? Decentralization, Revenue Pressures, and Governance Reform in China' and explore what actually drives municipal responses to orders from on high. Music this week by 阴三儿, 北京晚报 and 没钱没朋友. Do note that after this episode was recorded, some protests against "low-end population" removal broke out. <a href="https://open.acast.com/public/patreon/fanSubscribe/1959352" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Get bonus content on Patreon</a> See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>

Peter Lorentzen on the Politics of Protest in China