Professor James Wen graduated from Fudan University, Shanghai, Chna in 1982 with an M.A. in Economics, and from University of Chicago in 1989 with a Ph.D. in Economics, specializing in development economics, Globaization, and the economies of East Asia, particularly China.

James Wen loves teaching.  First, he believes in good reading materials and textbooks that avail students of the most updated information and of different views and opinions.  Second, in his teaching, mathematics is balanced by an institutional and historical approach. Third, he believes that Economics can be learned more effectively if students are challenged to think more deeply and to practice more. 

The earlier focus of James Wen’s  research was in China’s total factor productivity in its agriculture and the Great Leap Famine.  His more recent research interests are the remaining agrarian issues, and issues that are troubling China as it moves to modernization, urbanization and globalization.  More recently, he turns his interests to issues such as the Needham Puzzle.

Books:

• Wen, J.G., M. Hua, W. Li, and Y. Zhang. Institutional Change and Long-term Economic Development: A Comparative Historical Analysis on the  Differences in Market Expansion and Economic Dynamic Development between the Pre-modern Europe and China. Shanghai: Fudan University Press, June 2006.
• Wen, J.G., D. Lu, and H. Zhou, eds. China’s Economic Globalization through the WTO. England, Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate Publishing Limited, May 2003.
• Wen, J.G., S. Wei, and H. Zhou, eds. The Globalization of the Chinese Economy. England, London: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, Nov. 2002.
• Wen, J.G., Z. Zheng, X. Wang, and X. Zuo, eds. WTO and China: Developing through Globalization. China,  Beijing: The People’s University Press, September, 2001.
• Wen, J.G., and D. Xu, eds. The Reformability of China's State Sector (In English). Singapore: The World Scientific Publishing Company, March, 1997.

Journal Articles:

• Wen, J.G. “China’s Territory Changes and its Impulse to Leave Agrarian Society: An Economic Geographical  Approach to Needham Puzzle.” China Economic Quarterly, Peking University 4, 2 (2005): 519-540.
• Wen, J.G., and A. Y. Zhao. “Land Holding and Social Security in Rural China.” Homo Oeconomicus, (Oct. 1999): 157-176. [Revised and reprinted in J. Yin, S. Lin and D. Gates]
• Wen, J.G., and G. Chang. The Communal Duality: Agricultural Subsidies from TVEs. Contemporary Economic Policy 17, 1 (Jan.1999): 79-86.
• Wen, J.G. “Food Availability Versus Consumption Efficiency: Causes of the Chinese Famine.” China Economic Review Special Issue 9, 2 (1998): 157-165.
• Wen, J.G., and G. Chang. "Communal Dining and the Causation of the Chinese Famine of 1958 1961." A lead article, Economic Development and Cultural Change, (October, 1997): 1-34.
• Wen, J.G. "Total Factor Productivity Change in China's Farming Sector: 1952 89." A lead article, Economic Development and Cultural Change, (October 1993) 1-41.

• One year research grant, Trinity College, 2005-2006
• Honorary member of the Chinese Economists Society, 1996- 1997