Research Faculty

Kwok-Chiu Fung
  • Title
    • Full Professor
  • Division Social Sciences Division
  • Department
    • Economics Department
  • Affiliations East Asian Studies, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
  • Phone
    831-459-3273
  • Email
  • Fax
    831-459-5077
  • Website
  • Office Location
    • Engineering Building 2, Room 451
    • 451 Engineering 2
  • Mail Stop Economics Department
  • Mailing Address
    • Economics Department, University of California, Santa Cruz
    • Santa Cruz CA 95064
  • Faculty Areas of Expertise China, Economics, International and Global Affairs, Asian Studies, International Finance, Business Management, Foreign Policy, Pacific Rim, Development Economics, Latin American and Latino Studies

Summary of Expertise

International trade, international finance, China, Japan, economic development, economies of Asia and Silicon Valley.

Research Interests

International trade and finance, China, Japan, WTO, foreign direct investment, economic development, global environmental economics, exchange rates, Asia/Pacific economies and Silicon Valley

Biography, Education and Training

K.C. Fung is a Full Professor of Economics (with tenure) at the University of California, Santa Cruz.  He is active in research in international trade, international finance, economic development, China, Japan and Asian economies.

According to his latest official University of California merit review, based on research, teaching and service, his performance was evaluated to be "highly meritorious".  His latest book is on Sino-Latin American Economic Relationships. In the Fall of 2017, he was the Toyota Visiting Professor at Seoul National University (South Korea).

He is currently actively engaged in research in several areas, including China, Japan, international trade, exchange rates, economic development, Asian and Latin American economies, global environmental economics and innovation activities in Silicon Valley, Europe and Asia.  In 2015, he was the Guest Editor of a Special Issue of an academic journal with a theme on East Asian and European Linkages and Comparisons.

U.S. Government Experience: K.C. was a senior international economist in the President George H.W. Bush and President Bill Clinton White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA, with U.S. Government Security Clearance). 

He received a letter of commendation from the U.S. President while he was working in the White House.  He was a U.S. Government delegate to the OECD (Paris). 

He was on numerous U.S. Government economics committees and negotiation teams and worked on issues related to China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Mexico, Brazil, South America and Europe. He was a regular member of TPSC, interagency 301 Committee, CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States), an occasional member of TPRG, an occasional member of the White House National Economic Council (NEC) Deputies Meetings and an occasional member of the White House NEC Trade and Economic Policy Working Group. 

He worked on all economic and trade issues, including market access to Japan and China, international telecommunication and intellectual property rights cases.  He was a member of the U.S. Uruguay Round negotiation team, a member of the EU Airbus Agreement committee as well as a member of the Trade and Environment Working Group.

In 2016 and 2015, K.C. was an academic partner with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR, U.S. Government, Obama Administration).  In 2015, he provided briefings on the economics and politics of China, Hong Kong and Asia to U.S. government officials (Obama Administration). In 2012 and in 2011, he was an outside academic expert for a project related to American national economic interests in the Asia/Pacific, supported by the U.S. Government (Obama Administration). He provided two expert testimonies to U.S. Congressional Committees, the latest one in 2011.  

From 2006 to 2010, he was an adviser and an academic collaborator for the United States International Trade Commission (USITC, U.S. Government, George W. Bush and Obama Administrations), contributing to briefings and projects related to official requests by the Committee on Ways and Means of the United States House of Representatives.

Former U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz wrote a Foreword for his book U.S. Direct Investment in China (American Enterprise Institute AEI Press, Washington, D.C.).

Experience with International Organizations: In 2018 and 2017, he has been an academic consultant for ERIA (Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia).  In 2015, K.C. was commissioned to provide work related to Asia by the Asian Development Bank (Manila). In 2014 and in 2013, he was an academic consultant for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, Paris). In 2014, he was invited to make a presentation to the Trade Committee of the OECD. In 2013, he made a presentation to the research staff of the World Trade Organization (WTO, Geneva). 

In 2012-2013, he was an academic consultant for the World Bank.  His World Bank project involved the study of value-added trade in East Asia, South Asia and Latin America.  He conducted research related to infrastructure and connectivity for the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI, Tokyo) and his peer-reviewed chapter was published in 2012. Also in 2012, he was an academic consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and was invited to make a presentation in Washington, D.C.

In 2007, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).  Also in 2007, he was an academic research consultant for the WTO (Geneva).  In addition, from 2004 to 2007, he partnered with the WTO and trained senior government officials from 31 countries. His research had been published by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) and cited by official publications of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Experience with European Institutions: In 2016 and previously in 2012 and 2008, he was a Visiting Researcher at the Bank of Finland (Helsinki). In 2014, K.C. co-organized an academic conference at the University of Rouen, France.  In 2012, he was an invited academic expert panelist providing advice and the opening presentation to the EU Trade Commissioner (Brussels). In 2010, he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Le Havre (France).  In 2007, he was an academic consultant for the University of Barcelona, Spain.  In 2006 and in 2007, he was a Visiting Fellow at Bruegel (Brussels).  In 2007, he provided advice to economists at the European Commission (Brussels). He was previously a Visiting Researcher at Tilburg University (Netherlands).

K.C. was the Ph.D. dissertation advisor and a co-author of Dr. Andrea Maechler, who in 2015 became the first woman to be on the governing board of the Swiss National Bank (Berne and Zurich).

In Winter and Spring 2015 and from 2012-2014, he was a member of the Economics Department Ph.D. Committee.  From 1998-2001, he was the Economics Ph.D. Program Director and the Placement Director for the Ph.D. students. He is a Co-founder of Santa Cruz Center for International Economics. In 2009, he served as Chair of a system-wide University of California International Review Committee (UCIE) for Singapore.  In 2015, he was the Chair of the system-wide University of California International Review Committee (UCIE) for Hong Kong.

K.C. got his B.A. (with Honors) from Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  K.C. also taught at Stanford University, Mount Holyoke College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

K.C. has also been teaching at the joint London Business School-Hong Kong University Business School-Columbia University Business School EMBA-Global Asia program, the joint Fudan University-HKU international MBA program (in Shanghai and Beijing), Nankai University (Tianjin, China) and the Master of Economics and MBA programs at the University of Hong Kong.

In 2010, he co-organized an academic conference at Stanford University (Palo Alto, California). At Stanford, he taught a Ph.D. course on international trade theory, an upper division undergraduate course on international trade and international finance, an upper division undergraduate course on the Japanese economy and a writing-intensive undergraduate course on public policy in the United States. He also served as a Dissertation Committee Member for a Stanford Ph.D. student.

At UC, Santa Cruz, he taught undergraduate, Master-level and Ph.D. classes related to international trade, international finance, economic development, Asian economies as well as a writing-intensive business case study-related class.

In 2017, he was commissioned to provide work for RAND Corporation (Santa Monica, CA). In addition, in 2011, he was invited to be a Visiting Professor at Osaka University (Japan). He was also a Visiting Scholar/Academic Consultant at the University of Tokyo, IDE-JETRO (Japanese Government), National University of Singapore, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (Taipei) and ECIPE (Brussels).