Author Ilaria Mazzocco

Ilaria Mazzocco is a senior fellow with the Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Prior to joining CSIS, she was a senior research associate at the Paulson Institute, where she led research on Chinese climate and energy policy for Macropolo, the institute's think tank. She holds a PhD from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where her dissertation investigated Chinese industrial policy by focusing on electric vehicle promotion efforts and the role of local governments. She also holds master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins SAIS and Central European University, as well as a bachelor's degree from Bard College.

16 Items, Page 1 of 2

Wins and Losses: Chinese Industrial Policy’s Uneven Success

China’s industrial policy is a controversial yet ubiquitous topic. Global concerns are surging over Beijing’s use of state support to shape industries and to guide investment. In the United States, concerns over China’s systemic use of industrial policy and accusations of structural overcapacity have undermined trust in multilateralism and the World Trade Organization (WTO). At…

China’s Post-Reform Trajectory: An Interview with Yasheng Huang

In this interview for Big Data China, Trustee Chair Senior Fellow Ilaria Mazzocco speaks with Yasheng Huang (MIT Slogan School of Management) about Chinese institutions and their role in shaping China’s political and economic trajectory, U.S.-China academic collaboration in an era of increasing competition, his framework for understanding the role of diversity in a successful and innovative…

Unpacking Linkages Between the Chinese State and Private Firms

Ever since China began integrating into the global economy and shifting away from a planned economy in the late 1970s, domestic and foreign observers have closely tracked the development of the country’s emerging private sector to better understand the relationship between state and business, the country’s progress towards modernization, and the implications for the international…

Why Decarbonization Requires Globalization: An Interview with Michael Davidson

In this interview for Big Data China, Ilaria Mazzocco speaks with Michael Davidson (UC-San Diego) about the political economy of China’s climate policies and the impact of U.S. policy responses on achieving America’s own climate goals. Davidson, an assistant professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy and the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department…

China Is Growing Old Before It Becomes Rich: Does It Matter?

China’s Demographic Difficulties In 2022, after six consecutive years of declining birth rates, China recorded its first annual population decline since the early 1960s. According to a forecast by the United Nations, China’s population is set to fall from 1.426 billion in 2022 to 1.313 billion in 2050 and drop below 800 million by 2100….

Chinese State Media Abroad: More Effective than Expected

Over the past two decades, China has become an increasingly active and important international actor. The country is a global power on the diplomatic stage and increasing numbers of Chinese citizens, businesses, and government officials are shaping China’s image abroad. However, Chinese leaders may be discovering that global influence does not always correlate with popularity….

Can Chinese Firms Be Truly Private?

As China’s economy moved away from state planning and policymakers introduced market reforms in the 1980s and 1990s, many observers expected that in addition to promoting the growth of the Chinese economy, privatization would also have substantial political implications. Most importantly, it was thought that the rise of the private sector could lead to the…

Governance by Data: How China’s Party-State Keeps Its Pulse on the People 

The 20th Party Congress in Beijing in November highlighted just how much power Xi Jinping and his closest allies have concentrated in their hands. Control is more centralized than ever, and surveillance is ubiquitous in China. While these trends have consolidated the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) power and further reduced public opposition, such a system…

How U.S.-China Tensions Have Hurt American Science

There is a growing concern in Washington that the United States government, its companies, and universities have helped drive the rapid growth of China’s high-tech sector to the detriment of America’s overall national interest. Accusations of intellectual property (IP) theft and state-sponsored industrial espionage by China have loomed large in the bilateral relationship. These concerns…