Gary Jefferson is the Carl Marks Professor of International Trade and Finance at Brandeis University. His research focuses on technical innovation and institutional change in China’s enterprise system. Jefferson’s research, which involves collaboration with numerous Chinese agencies and policy institutes, is currently supported by grants from the Henry Luce Foundation and the Department of Energy. Jefferson has consulted extensively with the World Bank and on commercial projects, including topics on devaluation of the Chinese currency, long-term scenarios for the Chinese economy, and the social and economic impacts of enterprise restructuring. 

Jefferson served as Deputy State Planning Director (Massachusetts) and Staff Director of the International Development Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee before earning his Ph.D. in economics at Yale University. He joined the Economics Department at Brandeis in 1984 and currently holds joint appointments in the Department and the Graduate School of International Economics and Finance, where he is Director of the China Economic Research Program. As well as frequently visiting China, Jefferson has lived and taught at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and at Wuhan University in China.