Provided by Wikipedia Justin Yifu Lin (; born on October 15, 1952) is a Chinese economist and professor of economics at Peking University. He served as the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank from 2008 to 2012. He has been appointed as China's State Council Counsellor since September 2013.
Born in Yilan County of the Republic of China (Taiwan), Lin was a ground force captain and company commander of the Republic of China Army on the Kinmen Islands, where he swam across the channel and sought refuge in Xiamen of the People's Republic of China in May 1979. After settling in Mainland China, Lin became an economist after pursuing graduate studies in economics at Peking University and the University of Chicago, where he received respectively a Master of Economics in 1982 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1986. His doctoral advisor at the University of Chicago was Nobel laureate economist Theodore Schultz.
After completing his postdoctoral studies at Yale University, he returned to Beijing and became a professor of economics at Peking University in 1987. He founded the China Center for Economic Research (currently the Peking University National School of Development) and was later appointed Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank where he served from 2008 to 2012. After that, he returned to Beijing and to his research at Peking University.
His main academic theory is called ''New Structural Economics''. At Peking University, he currently serves as the Dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics, the Honorary Dean of the National Development Institute, and the Dean of the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development.
