The Growth
Academy

Program · Tokyo 2025

Tokyo. Dec 15 – 16.

Tokyo, Japan. Hosted in partnership with World Bank Group Institute for Economic Development (Tokyo) and Japanese Association for Development Economics (JADE).

Participants

42

Countries

10

Faculty + speakers

6+

Headline

Forty+ economists from across Asia

Recap

The Asia edition convened in Tokyo at the World Bank Group's Institute for Economic Development, with co-hosts JADE, the Asian Development Bank Institute, UNU, and UChicago BFI. The framing question: what does Japan's own development arc, from postwar recovery to the lost decades, teach the rest of Asia about the trap.

Forty-plus economists. Country teams from China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. The week closed on a session led by Chang-Tai Hsieh (UChicago) on China's structural slowdown and what the rest of Asia can learn from it.

Full event page ↗

Topics

  • Japan's development story
  • The middle-income trap in Asia
  • Business dynamism in Asia
  • The 3i framework
  • Talent allocation
  • Energy and growth

Faculty + speakers

  • Ufuk Akcigit
  • Somik Lall
  • Chang-Tai Hsieh
  • Forhad Shilpi
  • Franziska Ohnsorge
  • Maria Marta Ferreyra

Country teams

  • Japan
  • China
  • Indonesia
  • Malaysia
  • Philippines
  • Thailand
  • Vietnam
  • Bangladesh
  • Nepal
  • Pakistan
The University of ChicagoBecker Friedman Institute for EconomicsWorld Bank Group Institute for Economic Development