Talk:Steven N. S. Cheung

Non-notable?

How is this person notable? As either an unpublished professor or an alleged common criminal, he would not seem to be a proper encyclopedia subject. No other page currently links to this article. Is there some other reason he should be here? --Blainster 12:30, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

I find "notable" a matter of opinion, so I generally won't fuss over a page even when I can't think of any good reason for its existence. I've done a little editing on this page to try to add what content I could scare up on the internet. I couldn't find much. I came across the article in a listing of economists. All in all, I wouldn't fight deletion at this time. Coleca 02:39, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

As a Hongkonger, I know something about the contributions of N.S. Cheung. According to the text on Chinese wikipedia, Cheung is well-known for his theories about transaction cost, property rights and China's economy, etc. Your doubts may be due to the fact that he is seldom mentioned in English websites, perhaps partly due to allegations against him and that he hasn't contributed much elsewhere except in Hong Kong (and mainland China). He did contribute much in amending Hong Kong's A-level Economics examinations, and has attracted an audience who appreciate his theories, among some mainland students. If I have time later, I would expand this article by translating the Chinese version of it.(Or make a request)--User:Fitzwilliam 15:26, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Added the bizarre case of his selling fake antiques from his store in Seattle. Which is ironic since some of his work apparently has been on the subject of the economics of transactions where one party has much more information about the product than the other. (For example search for "asymmetric information" in this article.)JPalonus 22:43, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Prof. N. S. Cheung definitely meets the "Notable" criteria of Wikipedia. He is well-known and well-read in Hong Kong and mainland China. And it is not an exaggeration to say that his economic theories and thinking have strongly influenced many people in Hong Kong and China. The fact that he had legal and tax problems in U.S. should not affect whether he deserve an entry in Wikipedia.

As an aside, it saddens me to see that civility seemed to have been lost in the way Blainster described ("As either an unpublished professor or an alleged common criminal") why this entry should be deleted. To me, there are much more pleasant way to express concerns without being nasty to a living person. Just my 2 cents and I am often wrong. – Kempton "Ideas are the currency of the future." - a quote by Kevin Roberts 06:03, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

He is published. Unfortunately he brags a lot, thus in some people's views his fame is larger than his achievements. I have edited the books and articles section in Harvard style. Also to show that Prof Cheung is published. Anonymous. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.113.12.140 (talk) 00:20, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Can someone help expand this article on Prof. Cheung ?

If I had more time, I would start to do some translation work and add more of Porf. Cheung's economic theories and thinking. IMHO, much of his work about the Chinese economy has been extremely insightful. Unfortunately, since his target audiences have turned to Chinese students, general public, and policy makers in China, he has almost written exclusively in Chinese in the last 20 years. (note: I am no expert in translation. And will definitely suck in translating stuff about Economics.)

His latest work is a collection of three books (the fourth and latest one is more about his own educational experience, I think) in Chinese with some insightful rethinking in Economics analysis. The Nobel Prize winning economist Ronald Coase (a personal long time colleague and friend of Cheung) has asked Cheung to translate these works for him to read. Unfortunately, I haven't heard or read any recent news about these translation.

Now, can someone help expand this article and add more stuff about Prof. Cheung's thinking and theories about Economics please? At the moment, we have almost 50% of this entry discussing his legal troubles and then 50% about his life and economics in a very high level. Just my 2 cents and I am often wrong. – Kempton "Ideas are the currency of the future." - a quote by Kevin Roberts 06:23, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Cheung's Economic Reasoning

Would someone please explain the following to me:

Unlike modern neo-classical economics, his analysis relies mostly on basic price theory, including individuals' maximization, law of demand and diminishing rate of marginal return. In particular, he put stress on the importance of transactions and institutional costs in his analysis.

When I read neo-classical, I think of an economic model which relies on individual optimization, non-strategic situations, and market clearing. Such analysis usually holds diminishing MRS (a sufficient condition for utility maximization) and the Law of Demand. Transactions costs, when they can be adequately modeled, are included in the optimization. Does the above quote imply something else? Does his work deal instead with strategic interactions or market disequilibrium? Coleca 13:37, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Hi Coleca, Wished that I know enough to help here. What I am hoping is that economists in Hong Kong (may be graduates or students of Hong Kong University?) who know more can help out here. Or someone who knows the fine points of Cheung's Economics can help out here. Incidentally, I am trying to talk a friend (who is a grad student studying Economics at HKU) into trying to help improve this entry after exams. Will see if my friend have time to help. And I hope others will come to help as well. If no one will help, may be I should try a little bit of shaming the HKU grads or students. (big smile) Unfortunately, with an economic incentive of a big fat zero dollar as reward, I am not sure any economicsts with a proper training will come to help. (bigger smile) May be it is about time to shame the HKU grads/students into action. (ha ha) – Kempton "Ideas are the currency of the future." - a quote by Kevin Roberts 23:40, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

I went to JSTOR to see if he had any articles published in English. He has several articles in the Journal of Law and Economics, a couple in the Journal of Political Economy, and one in the Economic Journal. They all appear to be new institutional stuff; transactions costs, property rights, and the optimal structure of firms and institutions. It's right to say this is related to Coase's work. I haven't had time to read them yet. Also, I don't get any hits past 1983. I'll have a look after the Core Exams. Coleca 00:40, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

Coleca, Your results would be close to what I expected. Most (not all) of Cheung's writings are in Chinese since the 80s. I started reading his stuff in Chinese in the 80s. He kinda started the trend of doing serious economics analysis in regular presses (newspapers, magazines, etc.) in Hong Kong. Kinda like Milton Friedman writing for Newsweek (I don't think it is TIME but I might be wrong). By the way, there were some talks of having Cheung's works translated to English (partly as urged by Ronald Coase) but I haven't seen any news on that front recently. – Kempton "Ideas are the currency of the future." - a quote by Kevin Roberts 22:42, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Oct. 2007 expansion and update

I've talked and dreamt about updating Prof. Cheung's entry for quite a few months now. And I finally found some needed help to start this project.

For the next while, a volunteer team consisting of (in alphabetical order) Angela, Aries, Wallace, and myself (Kempton) are going to expand on and update this Wikipedia entry about Prof. Cheung. Our plan is to edit "often" to include our intermediate updates. We will try our best to provide references and notes as best as we can. But please note that some updates will be "work-in-progress" and as such will be a bit incomplete.

Thanks for your understanding during this renovation period.– Kempton "Ideas are the currency of the future." - a quote by Kevin Roberts 07:55, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

It is nice to see Prof. Cheung's entry in a reasonably well grounded stage now. I would like to personally thank the team that helped. In particular, Wallace has spent lots of time writing and researching, Aires added a few points, and Angela introduced me to Wallace and Aries. And I did some editing and rewording to make the entry reads more in an "encyclopedic" tone (whatever that means (smile)).

Thanks a lot for your understanding during the renovation. It is now in a reasonable state and ready to be further enhanced by others. – Kempton "Ideas are the currency of the future." - a quote by Kevin Roberts 06:09, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for speedy deletion

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