Leslie Young

Leslie Young (; 30 June 1949 – 5 April 2022) was a New Zealand–Chinese economist. His interests included uncertainty in international trade, and the influence of culture and political economy on economic performance. He was the executive director of the Asia Pacific Institute of Business from 1993, and was a long-serving member of the American Economic Review editorial board.

Early life and education Born in Guangzhou, China, on 30 June 1949,

Young became a naturalised New Zealand citizen on 5 September 1968. He married Lee McNab, and the couple had one child. He served four terms on the editorial board of the American Economic Review, and was on the Pacific Economic Review editorial board from 1996 to 2004.

Young was described as "an outstanding economist by any yardstick" by the New Zealand Association of Economics. He wrote papers on the impact of uncertainty on international trade and finance, and the effects on welfare of trade restrictions. With Stephen Magee from UTA and William A. Brock, he investigated the political economy of trade policy, leading to their book, Black hole tariffs and endogenous redistribution theory, published in 1989 by Cambridge University Press. Young was also interested in governance, and the interactions of culture, economic behaviour and legal processes, as exemplified by his papers comparing the economies of China and India, and also Asian and Western economies.

Honours and awards In 2003, Young was the first person to be conferred with an honorary Doctor of Commerce degree by Victoria University of Wellington. In 2009, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Estonian School of Business. Young was made a Distinguished Fellow of the New Zealand Association of Economists in 2012.

Selected publications