Dr. Wan-Hsin Liu

Coordinator & Fellow, Kiel Centre for Globalization
Senior Researcher of Research Groups “International Trade and Investment” and “Business Cycles and Growth”, Kiel Institute for the World Economy
Email: wan-hsin.liu@ifw-kiel.de
Tel.: +49(0)431-8814-269

Research Interests:

  • China
  • Foreign Direct Investment
  • Business Cycle
  • Innovation

KCG Working Paper No. 30: Technological Sophistication Made in China? – New Insights from Germany’s Evaluation of COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Tests

13th November 2023
KCG Secretary
Authors: Silas Dreier and Wan-Hsin Liu

By analyzing a unique dataset from Germany’s evaluation of COVID-19 antigen rapid tests, we show that Chinese firms can excel under today’s global competition and produce tests at quality levels higher than China’s income level would suggest[...]

Kiel Focus: “Germany’s Planned China Strategy Is the Wrong Approach”

26th January 2023
KCG Secretary
How should we engage with China? That question is currently being widely debated. Just a decade ago, the EU and China concluded the EU–China 2020 Strategic Agenda for Cooperation, which aimed at promoting a wide-ranging strategic partnership involving broad-based bilateral cooperation across a variety of areas. Although frequently modified, long-term cooperation was the foundation of bilateral relations between the partners[...]

China’s Investments in Germany and the Role of COVID-19 Pandemic

19th November 2021
KCG Secretary
Authors: Xinming Xia, Wan-Hsin Liu (Intereconomics, 2021, 56(2): 113–119)

This paper analyses how China’s investments in Germany have developed over time and the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in this regard, based on four different datasets, including our own survey in mid-2020. Our analysis shows that Germany is currently one of the most attractive investment destinations for Chinese investors.

Can the G20 Serve as a Launchpad for a Multilateral Investment Agreement?

18th November 2021
KCG Secretary
Authors: Axel Berger, Wan-Hsin Liu (The World Economy, 2021, Vol. 44(8), 2284-2302)

The international system for the governance of foreign investments is highly fragmented consisting mainly of bilateral agreements. With the adoption of nine guiding principles for global investment policy-making in 2016, some observers argue that the G20 can actually serve as a launchpad for negotiations of a multilateral investment agreement[...]

Kiel Week 2021 Presentations by KCG Researchers about Supply Chain Law, CO2 Border Adjustment and Global Coffee Trade

3rd September 2021
KCG Secretary
On the coming Saturday the Kiel Week 2021, in its 140th year, will officially start. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a founding institute of the Kiel Centre for Globalization, will again offer public presentations on various economics topics based on its current research work. There will be four such Kiel Week 2021 presentations provided by the Kiel Institute and three of them will be given by KCG researchers[...]

Coffee Development Report 2020 on the Coffee GVC is now Online Accessible

2nd February 2021
KCG Secretary
#CoffeeDevelopmentReport
The Coffee Development Report 2020 (CDR 2020) “The Value of Coffee: Sustainability, Inclusiveness, and Resilience of the Coffee Global Value Chain (GVC)” was released on Jan. 28, 2021 by the International Coffee Organization (ICO). The CDR 2020 gathers up-to-date research insights into the evolution of the international coffee trade, the key drivers of the development of the coffee GVC, and its economic, social and environmental impacts[...]

UNIDO-IfW-KCG Joint Article about Risk, Resilience and Recalibration in Global Value Chains

22nd December 2020
KCG Secretary
Current global value chains (GVCs) are highly efficient, specialized and interconnected, but they are also highly vulnerable to global risks. The high vulnerability to global risks was made clear particularly through the COVID-19 pandemic that caused supply-side disruptions in the first quarter of 2020, as China and other Asian economies were hit by the outbreak of the virus which later spread globally, leading to business closures around the world[...]

A New KCG Project on the Development of Global Value Chains in the Coffee Sector

24th August 2020
KCG Secretary
KCG Logo
International trade is widely recognised as a key driver of economic growth, poverty reduction and societal development. The United Nations (UN) thus considers international trade as an important instrument for individual countries and the world as a whole to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The particular attention that the UN gives to the developing countries in this regard makes it clear that some of these countries still lie strongly behind as to their integration into the international trade and thus are farther away from benefiting from trade for their development[...]

European Parliament Study on EU-China Trade and Investment Relations by BRUEGEL and IfW Available Online

2nd July 2020
KCG Secretary
European flags
On July 1 Germany took over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the next six months. Under the overarching objective “Together for Europe’s Recovery”, Germany aims at working with all EU Member States to jointly overcome the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, to support Europe’s economic recovery, to encourage innovation, social cohesion, solidarity and sustainability in Europe, to strengthen the European community of law and values as well as to further strengthen Europe’s role in dealing with global affairs (German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2020)[...]

Wan-Hsin Liu Gave a Presentation on China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Hamburg

9th January 2020
KCG Secretary
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by its President Xi Jinping in 2013 aims at fostering economic, social and political interactions between China and the other BRI countries. Many of these countries are in Asia and Europe, in line with the general perception that BRI has paid particular attention to strengthening the economic, social and political link between these two continents[...]

Wan-Hsin Liu Gave an Interview on China’ Investment in Europe and on Huawei in 5G Networks

3rd December 2019
KCG Secretary
With its economic reforms for decades, China is now the second largest economy in the world. Since the turn of the new century, the Chinese government has increasingly encouraged Chinese firms to go out and invest abroad. A strong increase in Chinese firms’ investment engagement abroad can be observed particularly after the financial crisis 2008/2009. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China proposed by its President Xi Jinping in 2013 that mainly aims at improving connectivity between China/Asia and Europe through investing in large-scale infrastructure projects[...]

KCG Researchers Commented on US-China Trade War

15th August 2019
KCG Secretary
KCG Logo
A recent KCG study “Friends like this: the Impact of the US – China Trade War on Global Value Chains” by Dr. Haiou Mao (Wuhan University and KCG Guest Researcher) and Prof. Holger Görg, Ph.D. (KCG Managing Director) investigates the indirect impact of the tariff increases between the US and China on third countries through their (differently strong) links in the global value chains. The analysis shows that the tariff hikes increase cumulative tariffs for other countries and[…]

KCG Researchers Involved in a Recent Study on China’s Belt and Road Initiative

2nd August 2019
KCG Secretary
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) aims at, first of all, fostering economic, social and political interactions between China and the other BRI countries. It should, however, also help encourage more communications, mutual understandings and cooperation among all BRI countries involved. This is expected to stimulate economic growth, facilitate economic integrations and encourage global prosperity. Cross-country large-sized infrastructure projects clearly lie in the key policy focus area of BRI[…]

KCG Researchers Participated in the CASS-IfW Workshop 2019 on Global Challenges and Solutions

31st May 2019
KCG Secretary
The Kiel Institute for the World Economy, one of the scientific partners of KCG, organised an academic workshop with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in cooperation with the Global Solutions Initiative on April 16, 2019 in Kiel Germany. Under the overarching theme “Global Challenges and Global Solutions”, more than 40 scholars, including a 20-person CASS-Delegation […]

KCG Researchers Participated in the Global Solutions Summit 2019

18th April 2019
KCG Secretary
The Global Solutions Summit 2019 with its overarching theme “Recoupling Social and Economic Progress towards a Global Paradigm Change” was held by the Global Solutions Initiative on March 18-19, 2019 at ESMT in Berlin. The multi-stakeholder event gathered 1600 experts from more than 100 countries together to explore and discuss policy recommendations on issues such as trade and investment, multilateralism, social cohesion, climate change and sustainable development[…]

Chinese Direct Investment in Europe – Challenges for EU FDI Policy

31st January 2019
KCG Secretary
Authors: Frank Bickenbach and Wan-Hsin Liu (CESifo Forum, 2018, Vol. 19(4), 15-22)

Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) into the European Union (EU) has increased substantially over the last decade. Whereas the EU generally welcomes inward FDI, FDI from China has been often accompanied by concerns. In view of these developments, the EU now faces the challenge of reforming its FDI policy in such a way as to simultaneously (i) defend the EU’s current openness to FDI (including from China); (ii) address the security concerns that have been raised for some types of FDI[…]

KCG Coordinator Joined the Annual Leibniz Coordinator Meeting

20th December 2018
KCG Secretary
KCG Coordinator, Dr. Wan-Hsin Liu, joined the annual Leibniz Meeting of ScienceCampi Coordinators which took place on November 27, 2018 in Berlin. Participating in this meeting enabled the coordinators not only to receive up-to-date and direct information from the Leibniz Association, which is relevant for the general development of the ScienceCampi, but also to exchange knowledge and lessons with other coordinators of the about 19 Leibniz ScienceCampi. The discussions at the meeting this[…]

KCG Policy Paper No. 4: China between External Pressure and Domestic Policy Reforms: In Search of a Balance

11th October 2018
KCG Secretary
Authors: Rolf J. Langhammer and Wan-Hsin Liu

It was probably a combination of the objective of a constructive response to external headwind from the United States (US) and to some extent also from the European Union (EU) as concerns China’s investment and trade policies on the one hand and the intrinsic insight that opening up the investment and trade sector in China […]


Fifth Coordinator Meeting in Kiel

30th August 2018
KCG Secretary
On August 6, 2018 the fifth Coordinator Meeting of the three Leibniz ScienceCampi in Kiel took place at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Dr. Mirjam S. Gleßmer and Dr. Gun-Brit Thoma from the Kiel Science Outreach Campus (KiSOC) and Dr. Wan-Hsin Liu from the Kiel Centre for Globalization (KCG) participated in the meeting. Dr. Christiane Gerlach from the Evolutionary Medicine of the Lung (EvoLung) joined the discussion via a conference call[…]

KCG Researchers Contributed to a New UNIDO Report on Global Value Chains with Focus on Asia

16th August 2018
KCG Secretary
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) recently published a new report “Global Value Chains (GVCs) and Industrial Development – Lessons from China, South-East and South Asia” to provide evidence on the evolution of global and regional value chains in Asia. From the Asian lessons policy suggestions are derived to support firms’ and countries’ participation in GVCs and encourage their upgrading over time[…]

KCG Fellows Attended the Global Solutions Summit in Berlin

1st June 2018
KCG Secretary
This year’s Global Solution Summit took place on May 28 and 29, 2018 in Berlin. The annual summit is organized by the global think tank network “Global Solutions Initiative” that is chaired by Prof. Dennis J. Snower Ph.D., President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. The summit brought together international leaders from academia, business, politics and the civil society with the aim of discussing[…]

Leibniz President Matthias Kleiner visited Kiel Centre for Globalization

1st February 2018
KCG Secretary
Prof. Dr. Matthias Kleiner, President of the Leibniz Association, visited Leibniz ScienceCampi in Kiel on Jan. 31, 2018. His visit started with two morning meetings with Prof. Dr. Sonja Peterson, Scientific Director of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, and most of the research members of the Kiel Centre for Globalization led by Prof. Holger Görg, Ph.D., KCG Managing Director. Prof. Kleiner was accompanied by Dr. Bettina Böhm (Secretary-General), Dr. Kristina Hahn (Advisor) and Dr. Felix Kießling (Advisor) for visiting KCG […]

KCG Working Paper No. 8: How Global is FDI? Evidence from the Analysis of Theil Indices

31st December 2017
KCG Secretary
Authors: Frank Bickenbach, Wan-Hsin Liu and Peter Nunnenkamp

It is open to question whether the intensified worldwide competition for FDI has reduced its traditionally strong concentration in a few large and relatively advanced host countries We calculate and decompose Theil indices to track changes in absolute and relative concentration of FDI during the period 1970-2013[…]

Low-income Countries are No Longer at the Losing End of the Competition for FDI

10th August 2017
KCG Secretary
Foreign direct investment (FDI) “brings with it not only resources, but technology, access to markets, and (hopefully) valuable training, an improvement in human capital” (Stiglitz 2000: 1076). Thus, FDI has been widely recognised as being advantageous for helping integrate individuals, firms and countries into global value chains and therefore as being an important driver for sustained economic growth. Since the early 1990s UNCTAD has observed that the vast majority of policy measures relating to the entry and establishment of foreign investors aim at liberalizing and promoting FDI inflows, rather than restricting and regulating them[…]

How Global is FDI? Evidence from the Analysis of Theil Indices

10th August 2017
KCG Secretary
Authors: Frank Bickenbach, Wan-Hsin Liu and Peter Nunnenkamp (Empirical Economics, 2018, Vol. 55(4), 1603-1635)

It is open to question whether the intensified worldwide competition for FDI has reduced its traditionally strong concentration in a few large and relatively advanced host countries. We calculate and decompose Theil indices to track changes in absolute and relative concentration of FDI during the period 1970-2013. We find that both absolute and relative concentration decreased when excluding offshore financial centres from the overall sample. In addition to the narrowing gap between OECD and non-OECD countries, the concentration across non-OECD countries declined for both the absolute and relative measures[…]

Second Local Coordinator Meeting in Kiel

18th May 2017
KCG Secretary
To facilitate knowledge exchange and to share lessons and best practices in coordinating campus-related activities with each other, coordinators of the three Kiel Leibniz ScienceCampi “EvoLUNG”, “KCG”, and “KiSOC” initiated a Local Coordinator Meeting in Kiel in January, 2017. The second Local Coordinator Meeting took place at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a scientific founding institution of the KCG, on May 17, 2017[…]

Opening up Markets and the Role of International Investment Agreements

23rd February 2017
KCG Secretary
As introduced in the KCG news of Feb. 16, 2017, a recent KCG Policy Paper proposes evidence-based strategies that are highly relevant for particularly developing economies to attract quality FDI (foreign direct investment). Among the strategies proposed, the authors emphasised the key relevance of market opening in this regard. Developing countries should try to “reduce restrictions on FDI and provide open. […]

Different but Complementary Research Methods are Key for KCG Interdisciplinary Research

19th January 2017
KCG Secretary
The Kiel Centre for Globalization (KCG) works on an interdisciplinary research agenda that evaluates the proliferation of global supply chains as an important aspect of globalization. In doing so, it builds a research team consisting of researchers from different disciplines such as economics, ethics, management science and philosophy. The KCG researchers possess discipline-specific knowledge and apply different but complementary research methods for analysis.[…]

Local Coordinator Meetings for Knowledge Exchange among Leibniz ScienceCampi in Kiel

12th January 2017
KCG Secretary
The Leibniz Association currently financially supports 19 Leibniz ScienceCampi. Three of them are located in Kiel: EvoLUNG, Kiel Centre for Globalization (KCG), and Kiel Science Outreach Campus (KiSOC). All three Kiel Leibniz ScienceCampi just started in 2016. To facilitate knowledge exchange and to share lessons and best practices in coordinating campus-related activities with each other, the coordinators of the three Kiel Leibniz ScienceCampi decided to have regular meetings to make such exchange possible.[…]