On November 2016, our SPEA Teacher Ye Fangjin went to America to attend International Political Economy Society 2016 Conference
During the conference, Teacher Ye shared his dissertation Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs): The Global Investment Regime and Income Inequality in Developing Countries, which received constructional revise suggestion in the following Q&A section. The paper mainly demonstrated how BITs influence fiscal income and labor rights and lead to uneven income distribution. He pointed out that we should consider alternative mechanism. For example, BITs could influence Foreign direct investment, and then lead to uneven income distribution. He also pointed out that the paper focused on the act of capital recipient country instead of investors’ preference. Texas A&M University Professor Erica Owen showed great interest and shared some constructive comments. She highlighted the importance of foreign direct investment and recommended some papers to explain the influence of Trade. University of Texas at Austin Professor Rachel Wellhausen also shared many comments. She suggested to explain how BIT confine domestic policy-making space of capital recipient countries. New York University Peter Rosendorff, University of California, Los Angeles Professor Ronald Rogowski, University of Minnesota Professor Jane Sumner, and several other attendees also provided many suggestions.
Through this conference, Teacher Ye encountered many professors and Ph.D Students and had in-depth communication with them. He got to know more of the updated research in this area and laid the foundation for his new projects and further cooperation with other guests.