Ronald M. Schramm’s New ‘Handbook’ Shows Where Chinese Economy Has Been — and Where It Could Still Go | Weatherhead East Asian Institute

China is still capable of great things, says the SIPA Adjunct Professor, but it needs a new vision of its workers “not as tools for prosperity but as beneficiaries of prosperity.” SIPA Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs Ronald M. Schramm, editor of The Sage Handbook of the Chinese Economy (2026). Published this month, The Sage Handbook of the Chinese Economy is an authoritative new resource whose comprehensiveness is matched by its sense of nuance and attention to detail. In 28 chapters spread over five sections, 42 experts scrutinize virtually every aspect of the PRC’s present-day economy, homing in on such critical areas as housing, technological innovation, financial markets, and, not least of all, its workforce. The book’s concluding section examines China’s relations with the rest of the world, in such contexts as foreign direct investment and the Belt and Road Initiative, its controversial overseas development program. The new Sage Handbook arrives at a critic

China is still capable of great things, says the SIPA Adjunct Professor, but it needs a new vision of its workers “not as tools for prosperity but as beneficiaries of prosperity.” SIPA Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs Ronald M. Schramm, editor of The Sage Handbook of the Chinese Economy (2026). Published this month, The Sage Handbook of the Chinese Economy is an authoritative new resource whose comprehensiveness is matched by its sense of nuance and attention to detail. In 28 chapters spread over five sections, 42 experts scrutinize virtually every aspect of the PRC’s pres