Elizabeth Economy

Elizabeth Charissa Economy
Elizabeth Economy at Naval War College in 2016
Born	(1962-12-27) December 27, 1962 (age 61)
Academic background
Alma mater	Swarthmore College Stanford University University of Michigan
Thesis	Negotiating the Terrain of Global Climate Change Policy in the Soviet Union and China: Linking International and Domestic Decision-making Pathways (1994)
Doctoral advisor	Michel Oksenberg, Kenneth Lieberthal
Academic work
Discipline	Political science
Institutions	Hoover Institution Council on Foreign Relations

Elizabeth C. Economy (born 27 December 1962) is an American political scientist, foreign policy analyst, and expert on China's politics and foreign policy. She was a Senior Advisor for China to the Secretary of Commerce in the Biden administration and Senior Fellow (on leave) at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.^[1]

In 1994, Economy completed her PhD in Political Science at the University of Michigan.^[2]

She has taught at Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and the University of Washington's Jackson School of International Studies.^[3] She was C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations for over a decade.^[4][2][5]

From 2008 to 2014, Economy served as a member and then Vice Chair of the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s Global Agenda Council on the Future of China. From 2014 to 2016, she served as a member of WEF's Global Agenda Council on the United States.^[3]

In 2008, Economy received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Vermont Law School.^[3]

Economy serves on the board of managers of Swarthmore College and the board of trustees of The Asia Foundation.^[6] She is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group^[7] and is a participant of the Task Force on U.S.-China Policy convened by Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations.^[8] She also serves on the National Endowment for Democracy and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations' boards of directors.^[9][10]

Economy is the daughter of materials science researcher James Economy and Anastasia Economy.^[11] She was raised in San Jose, California.^[12] She married investment banker David Wah in 1994.^[13] They live in New York City and have three children.^[2]

• The Internationalization of Environmental Protection (Cambridge University Press, with Miranda Schreurs, 1997)
• China Joins the World: Progress and Prospects (Council on Foreign Relations Press, with Michel Oksenberg, 1999)
• The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future (Cornell University Press, 2004)
• By All Means Necessary: How China's Resource Quest is Changing the World (Oxford University Press, 2014, with Michael Levi)
• The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State (Oxford University Press, 2018)^[14]
• The World According to China^[15] (Polity, 2021)

• China’s Alternative Order, Foreign Affairs, April 23, 2024^[16]
• "The Game Changer: Coping With China's Foreign Policy Revolution." Foreign Affairs (2010): 142–152.
• "China's Imperial President: Xi Jinping Tightens His Grip." Foreign Affairs 93.6 (2014): 80–91.
• "History with Chinese Characteristics: How China's Imagined Past Shapes Its Present." Foreign Affairs. 96 (2017): 141–148.
• "China's New Revolution: The Reign of Xi Jinping." Foreign Affairs. 97 (2018): 60–74.
• "The China Model: Unexceptional Exceptionalism." Essay Series of the Hoover Institution: Human Prosperity Project (2020).

• In this podcast, Elizabeth C. Economy and James M. Lindsay discuss Chinese president Xi Jinping and China-US relations (May 3, 2018)