People

Faculty

Back to Menu

Faculty Members

Y.F. Luk

Director
Associate Professor

Office:	KK 1004
Tel:	2859-1039
Email:

BIOGRAPHY

Y.F. Luk received his A.B. in economics from the University of Chicago, and Ph.D. from Cornell University. He was previously lecturer in economics, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Luk's first contact with economics was an economics course he took in his third year as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. He was greatly impressed by the perspective that economics provides in understanding human behaviour, and the depth that economic analysis can go beyond the surface of social interactions. As a result, he changed his major from history to economics and went on to study economics at the graduate level. Luk has great interests in teaching economics. He enjoys showing students the conclusions reached at through economic analysis, which are at times quite different from what intuition alone would imply. His efforts in teaching won him a teaching fellowship while as a graduate student at Cornell University.

Luk's academic interests are in monetary theory, banking and finance, and international finance. He is also interested in the interface of economics and finance, that is, how the functioning of the financial system affects economic performance, and vice versa. In addition, he has also been studying the economy of Hong Kong and the economy of Mainland China. One research project currently undertaken by Luk is about the monetary system in Hong Kong. This study examines the behaviour of the Hong Kong dollar and its relationship with the economy. The significance of this topic is best illustrated by the recent episode of speculation against the Hong Kong dollar, as well as similar attacks on other Asian currencies. In the Hong Kong case, should the Hong Kong dollar continue to be linked to the US dollar? What are the economic consequences of severing the link? How can the link be strengthened to forestall further speculations? Are high interest rates and business slowdown necessary costs of such a system? What are the roles of commercial banks in the creation and value determination of the Hong Kong dollar? These are the questions to be answered before we understand how to keep the economy stable.

Luk is also working on a project on money and banking in Mainland China. As the economy there moves from central planning to market, the monetary and banking systems there are particularly interesting and are different from those in Hong Kong. There are issues of how money and banking should be reformed, as well as how they facilitate or hinder reform of the economy as a whole. As economic ties between Hong Kong and the Mainland get increasingly close, development in money and banking in the Mainland will have a lot of implications on the Hong Kong economy.

Luk also carries out editorial work for the Hong Kong Centre for Economic Research, which is associated with the University of Hong Kong. The Centre is currently coordinating a series of 30 books on different aspects of the Hong Kong economy, and Luk serves as editor of the series.