MIT World Speakers

Edward S. Steinfeld

Edward Steinfeld is an associate professor of political economy in the MIT Department of Political Science. Steinfeld directs the MIT China Program (MISTI), and co-directs the MIT Industrial Performance Center’s China Energy Group. His research focuses on the political economy of development, with a particular emphasis on contemporary China.

Much of Steinfeld’s current research focuses on the growth, regulation, and performance of China’s energy sector. Decisions being reached in that sector today exert tremendous influence over a variety of global environmental concerns, everything from climate change to natural resource depletion. Such decisions, however, are exceedingly complicated, often involving multiple actors and dense interactions between new technologies, burgeoning markets, diverse commercial strategies, and new regulations.

While at MIT, Steinfeld has also served as a consultant to the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, and a variety of both public and private sector organizations. Steinfeld currently serves as a director of the National Committee on US-China Relations.

He received a B.A. ('88) in Government from Harvard University, a M.A.('93)and Ph.D.,('96) in Political Science from Harvard University.