H E A L T H A N D S O C I E T Y
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R E S E A R C H
@
H K U S T
Thought Leadership on
Emerging Markets
The HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies (IEMS),
directed by Prof Albert Park, was established in 2013, with
support from professional services firm Ernst and Young (EY).
The Institute’s mission is to provide thought leadership on
key issues facing businesses and policy-makers in emerging
markets. IEMS provides research grants to its 40-plus HKUST
Faculty Associates and expands networks with researchers in
emerging markets. It also organizes conferences, academic
seminars, and business and policy talks to foster discussion
and disseminate research findings to a broad audience. The
Institute is a member of the World Bank’s Network on Jobs
and Development initiative, which contributes to the creation of
multi-sector, multidisciplinary solutions to the jobs’ challenge
around the world, based on research and empirical evidence.
IEMS is one of four emerging market institutes in different
locations supported by EY.
Through the Institute, a series of policy briefs has been
regularly published by HKUST faculty, providing research-based
policy recommendations on topics including the survival of
Hong Kong-owned manufacturing firms in Mainland China,
employment gender gap in urban China, internationalization
of the renminbi, and minimum wage policies as they affect
workers in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).
diture Patterns for Healthcare in China: Are the Rural Elderly
Vulnerable”, with Qing Xia), Prof Park and his teamwere the first
to document the huge deficit in medical healthcare expenditures
of rural elderly as they age.
Policy Relevance and Open Data
From the research findings, several priorities for effectively
coping with an aging population have been proposed. These
include: increasing benefits of social insurance programs and
gradual integration of programs across regions and types;
improving quality of preventive healthcare; and raising
mandatory retirement ages while designing pension programs
that do not detract from work incentives. In addition, the team has
undertaken a one-time life history survey of all respondents
(results are being analyzed), and is proposing a major study on
dementia in China.
Another exciting aspect of CHARLS is that the survey data is
publicly available, unlike many China datasets. There are already
thousands of registered users, opening the way for developing
research excellence around the world in an area of great social
need. “CHARLS is well known inside and outside China,” said
Prof Park. “As more waves of data are collected, it becomes
even more useful. It will build on itself. I am very confident that
as the project continues this open research tool will become
increasingly influential and provide an invaluable data resource
to inform policy-making.”
PROF ALBERT PARK
Chair Professor of Social Science,
Professor of Economics,
Director, HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies
Following people over time you
can get a deeper insight into what
determines outcomes as opposed
to taking snapshots. You see people
before they retire, after they retire,
what happens after they get an
illness or a spouse passes away.
It is much more convincing than
comparing groups of people in
cross-section
