On June 19, the Graduate Institute of National Development hosted a talk by Prof. Wendy Leutert of Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, titled “Red and Green? State-Owned Enterprise Leaders and China’s Low-Carbon Transition.”
Drawing on an original biographical dataset encompassing nearly 600 leader-year observations, Prof. Leutert analyzed the career trajectories of top executives from 20 central SOEs in China’s power sector between 2003 and 2023. The talk also incorporated case studies based on field research in China, illustrating how SOE leaders act in varied roles in advancing low-carbon transition initiatives.
Prof. Leutert concluded by critically evaluating the extent to which China’s current institutional and policy frameworks align the incentives of SOE leaders with the country’s broader decarbonization objectives.
