Yang Bai is a PhD student in the Department of International Development at King’s College London. Her research examines the effects of financialisation on industrial sectors in South Africa and China, aiming to bridge a crucial gap in development economics. By combining quantitative econometric analysis with qualitative sectoral research, her work explores how financialisation contributes to deindustrialisation in these economies and how this relationship varies between manufacturing and mining sectors.

Yang holds an MSc in Emerging Economies and International Development from King’s College London and a BA in Economics from Durham University. Alongside her PhD, she works as an Associate Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she teaches microeconomics and macroeconomics. She has previous experience in financial management and analysis in China, where she contributed to corporate financial strategies and operations. Her research seeks to provide policymakers with strategic insights on balancing financial growth with industrial development in emerging economies, contributing to both academic scholarship and practical solutions.

Research

Thesis title: 'Financialisation and (de-)industrialisation in South Africa and China: Conditions, causes and critical perspectives'

Yang's research investigates the bidirectional causal relationship between financialisation and deindustrialisation. Using a sectoral panel dataset, her work examines how financialisation contributes to deindustrialisation and vice versa. Focusing on sectoral differences between the manufacturing and mining industries, her findings show that the negative impact of financialisation on industrialisation is less severe in the manufacturing sector compared to the mining sector.

Her research provides critical insights into the socio-economic consequences of financialisation and offers policy recommendations for balancing financial expansion with industrial development in emerging economies.

PhD supervision

Primary supervisor: Ewa Karwowski

Secondary supervisor: Juan Grigera

Further details

See Yang's research profile