Yukon Huang

Senior Advisor and Former Director, World Bank China Program

SNAPSHOT BIO

Yukon Huang is a noted expert on financial and development issues for emerging markets, with a focus on East Asia (China in particular) as well as the Former Soviet Union.  He is currently a consultant and senior advisor to the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, various governments and private companies.

He was the World Bank’s first field based Country Director for China from 1997-2004 and from 1992-97 Director for Russia and Central Asia. As Director, he was responsible for the Bank’s two largest lending programs, which included developing, negotiating and supervising investment loans totaling over $20 billion.  These involved some 100 projects ranging from major power systems, to financial restructuring and basic education. He also supervised a program of research and policy studies covering economic and financial issues for these countries.

From 2004 to 2006, as the Senior Advisor to the East Asia Vice-President, he managed a broad range of financial and development issues for East Asia.

In previous World Bank assignments he was responsible for overseeing the Bank’s overall lending and risk assessment policies and also served as Lead Economist and Country Operations Chief for Asia.

Prior to joining the Bank, Dr. Huang worked at the US Treasury on international economic issues and taught and conducted research at various universities in the United States, Asia and Africa.

His publications have included in-depth studies on a number of key emerging markets in Asia, Europe and Africa as well as fiscal and financial policies for developing countries more generally. His recent work includes a volume of country studies on how location and spatial factors have affected growth in East Asia (Reshaping Economic Geography in East Asia) and an edited collection of papers by noted specialists on the future of East Asia (East Asia Visions: Perspectives on Economic Development).

Dr. Huang received his B.A. in Economics from Yale University.  His Masters and Ph.D. in Economics are from Princeton University.