Nobel winner urges ‘amazing’ Hong Kong to keep hold of what made it great

Nobel-winning economist James Robinson has hailed Hong Kong for its “amazing” inclusive society, calling on the city to deepen such inclusion and stay true to how it became great to further its “incredible success story”.

Robinson, a British-American professor at the University of Chicago, also told a seminar on Thursday that he was a believer in the important role a government played in supporting a dynamic capitalist economy, as other experts agreed the local administration could take a more proactive approach.

Robinson was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics last year with two other professors, Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson. They argued that states with “inclusive institutions” which upheld the rule of law and property rights – as opposed to “extractive” ones – led to economic success.

But Robinson, speaking at an economic forum organised by the University of Hong Kong’s Business School, acknowledged that the city had built an inclusive society but without the kind of inclusive institutions that they had argued were necessary.

“When I look at Hong Kong, I see a huge amount of inclusion, social mobility, entrepreneurship. Hong Kong was one of the great economic success stories in world history. But it has done it with extractive political institutions. And by here, I mean British colonialism,” he said.

“Somehow the rule of law applied and it was to the advantage of the British to keep things inclusive.”