Steven N. S. Cheung
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Steven N. S. Cheung (Traditional Chinese: 張五常; born December 1, 1935), a Hong Kong born economist, specializes in the fields of transaction costs and property rights. He is also the most expensive columnist in Hong Kong. Known for his work on private property rights and transaction costs, he achieved his fame with an economic analysis on China open-door policy after 1980s. He is also the first to introduce concepts from the Chicago School of Economics into China.
He obtained his PhD in economics from UCLA, where his teacher was famous American economist Armen Alchian. He taught in the Department of Economics at the University of Hong Kong from the 1980s to 1990s. During this period, Cheung reformed the syllabus of Hong Kong's A-level Economics examination, adding the concepts of the postulate of constrained maximization, methodology, transaction cost and property right, most of which originate from the theories of the Chicago school. He is also good at photography and Chinese calligraphy.
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[edit] Comments on China's modernization
He had written many books (in Chinese) commenting on China's modernization programs from an economic point of view. In 1980s, Cheung strongly supported an economic transformation of China as a market economy. However, in that decade, China went through serious inflation, leading to strong economic, political and social tensions.
However, after 1992, China continued to reform economically. Steven Cheung claimed that most of his predictions have come true.
[edit] Timeline
- 1935- Born in Hong Kong
- 1941- Fled to China
- 1959- Economics in UCLA
- 1967- Analysis of the Theory of Share Tenancy and Variable Rural Land Resource Allocation, PhD thesis
- 1969- Teaching at University of Washington
- 1982- Head of Economics and Finances School of Hong Kong University
- 1998-2003 - Sold fake antiques through his store, Thesaurus Fine Arts
[edit] Important Works
[edit] Thesis
- Analysis of the Theory of Share Tenancy and Variable Rural Land Resource Allocation published
- Transaction Costs, Risk Aversion, and the Choice of Contractual Arrangements
- The Fable of the Bees: An Economic Investigation
Professor Steven Cheung was one of the top Chinese scholars in the study of economics. Unlike modern neo-classical economics, his analysis relies mostly on basic price theory, including individuals' maximization, law of demand and diminishing rate of marginal return. In particular, he put stress on the importance of transactions and institutional costs in his analysis.
[edit] Alleged Tax Evasion
On January 28, 2003, Cheung was indicted on thirteen counts by a federal grand jury. The charges consisted of six counts of filing a false income tax return, six counts of filing false foreign bank account reports, and one count of Consipiracy to Defraud the United States. Linda Su Cheung, the wife of Steven N.S. Cheung, was also indicted on the latter count.
The Cheungs were to be arraigned on February 20, 2003. However, they failed to appear. Consequently, arrest warrants were issued.
Originally a professor at Hong Kong University, because of the extradition agreements between the US and Hong Kong, Cheung has since then stayed in the PRC, a country which has no such agreements with America.
Currently, Cheung lives in Shenzhen. He now still writes books and works as a columnist for a famous Hong Kong newspaper, Apple Daily. Occasionally, he paid some visits to some universities in the mainland and was welcomed by some students there, accompanied by his wife acting as the translator of Mandarin for Cheung who speaks Cantonese and English only.
[edit] Selling Fake Antiques
From 1998 to 2003 Steven N. S. Cheung Inc. owned an antique dealer in Seattle called Thesaurus Fine Arts, which specialized in Asian antique pieces. The store closed when a series of investigative reports in the Seattle Times revealed that many of the antiques were fake, and whose old ages had been certified by a lab owned by Steven Cheung.
In 2004, the Washington State Attorney General filed consumer fraud charges against Thesaurus Fine Arts. In 2005 Thesaurus Fine Arts settled for up to $550,000 in fines, attorney fees, and restitution. However, as part of the settlement Cheung himself was dropped from the case.
