Professor Zhigang Tao is Professor of Economics and Strategy in the Faculty of Business and Economics and the director of the Institute for China and Global Development, The University of Hong Kong. 

Prior to joining the University of Hong Kong in 1998, he taught at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology from 1992 to 1998. Professor Tao received his BSc in Management Science from Fudan University in 1986, and his PhD in Economics from Princeton University in 1992. Professor Tao is Senior Fellow at Tsinghua University's National Centre of Economic Research, Senior Fellow at Tsinghua University's Center for China in the World Economy, and Visiting Professor at Fudan University School of Management. 

He is also Co-Director of the Asia Competitiveness Program of Hong Kong Institute of Economics and Business Strategy. His research interests are international economics, development economics, China business and economics, and economics of organizations and strategy. He has published in various economics and management journals such as American Economic Review, International Economic Review, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, Journal of International Economics, Management International Review, and Rand Journal of Economics. Professor Tao has also written books about the competitiveness of China's manufacturing industries, and China's Yangtze River Delta.