Dr Jing Gu is a political economist with a focus on development policy and impact. She is the Director of the Centre for Rising Powers and Global Development at the Institute of Development Studies. She has an interdisciplinary background in law, economics and international development and has extensive experience in the field of governance, business and development.
She leads the UK Anchor Institution for China International Development Research Network. She is also the Deputy Team Leader of the UK Prosperity Fund China Evaluation Team. She has directed and co-directed many training courses for developing country officials and researchers. She is a member of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) International Development Peer Review College.
She has extensive experience in teaching, research and advisory work of governance, business, law and sustainable development. She advises government and business in China and Africa and was an invited expert witness on ‘DFID and China’ to the British Parliament’s International Development Committee. She is a Senior Consultant and Senior Academic Advisor to both the China International Development Research Network and the Centre for International Knowledge on Development at the Development Research Centre of the State Council in China. Her research and advisory work focus on China’s development policy, BRICS and South South Cooperation.
She has led many interdisciplinary research projects involving multi-country teams, including the ground-breaking research on China’s outward investment in Africa and China-UK Cooperation on African Trade and Investment for Poverty Reduction. Her innovative research work has provided important new insights into the complex reality of state and business motivational and operational practices, challenging orthodox conventional wisdom.
She has published widely on China and emerging powers, BRICS, China’s international development role and China-Africa relations. Recent publications include “Chinese State Capitalism? Rethinking the Role of the State and Business in Chinese Development Cooperation in Africa’ (World Development, 2016); “BRICS in International Development: The State of the Debate” (Palgrave, 2016); and ‘China’s Development Finance and African Infrastructure Development’, in A. Oqubay and J.Y. Lin (eds), China-Africa and an Economic Transformation, Oxford University Press, 2019). She is a member of the International Editorial Board of Third World Quarterly.
