David Dollar (November 21, 1954 – October 8, 2023) was an American economist and China scholar who served as a senior fellow at the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as Brookings, is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics (and tax policy), metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global econo ...

's John L. Thornton China Center between July 2017 and October 2023. His research focused on economic reform in China and US-China economic relations. He hosted Brookings' "Dollar and Sense" trade podcast.

Early life and education

David Dollar was born on November 21, 1954. Originally from

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

, he graduated with a BA in Chinese History and Language from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

in 1975 and a PhD in economics from

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a non-denominational all-male institutio ...

in 1984. Subsequently, he joined

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

as an assistant professor in the economics department.

Career

Between 2009 and 2013 Dollar served as the U.S. Treasury Department's Economic and Financial Emissary to China. Prior to that he was the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

's country director for

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

Publications

Articles

Creating a better environment for development as an objective of US policy, ''

'', December 2022 (co-authored with Patricia Kim, Louison Sall, and Jonathan Stromseth) What China needs to do if it wants to achieve its ambitious economic goals by 2049, ''

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

'', June 21, 2021 (co-authored with Yiping Huang and Yang Yao) The Foreign Policy Essay: Will China's Economy Dominate the 21st Century? ''

Lawfare Lawfare is the use of legal systems and institutions to affect foreign or domestic affairs, as a more peaceful and rational alternative, or as a less benign adjunct, to warfare. Detractors have alternately begun to define the phrase as, "An att ...

'', January 4, 2015 The Creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Is the Right Move for the Global Economy, ''

NYT ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', October 22, 2014 Spreading the Wealth, ''

Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit organization, nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership or ...

'', January 1, 2002 (co-authored with Aart Kraay)

Others

What's the best case scenario for US-China relations? Dollar & Sense Podcast, August 14, 2023 (with Ryan Hass)

Death

Dollar died on October 6, 2023, of complications from a bone marrow transplant, at the age of 68.

References

1954 births 2023 deaths American sinologists Dartmouth College alumni New York University alumni Brookings Institution people China–United States relations {{US-economist-stub