Schran, Peter

YEARS IN THE DEPARTMENT:

1965-1999

RESEARCH INTEREST:

Chinese Economy, Economic Development

BIOSKETCH:

Peter Schran was born in Berlin, Germany on September 10, 1930. His childhood was marked by the chaos that many in Europe experienced during World War II; Schran spent the war separated from his family, first staying in Rügen, Germany before relocating to Denmark. At the end of the war, he moved to Chicago as an exchange student. During the early 1950’s, Schran studied at Washington University in St. Louis as a Fulbright Scholar.

Schran received his bachelor’s degree in Political Economy in 1954 from the Free University of Berlin, and later received his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in 1961. His first teaching appointment was at Yale University as an assistant professor of Economics. In 1965, Schran joined the University of Illinois as an associate professor in Economics with a dual appointment in the Center for Asian Studies.

Professor Schran became known as “the China Expert” during his career at Illinois. His book, “The Development of Chinese Agriculture, 1950-1959” was a major contribution to the field of the economy of China and helped to explain Chairman Mao Zedong’s economic policies. Schran’s work in this field quickly earned him a promotion to a full professor.

His later work was on the guerilla economy China employed during the Second Sino-Japanese War, as well as problems of economic welfare in backward economies. His broader interests included comparative economic systems and economic development. Schran served on an extraordinary amount of PhD thesis committees for students interested in the economy of China.

Schran retired from the University of Illinois in 1999 and was named a Professor Emeritus, then moved with his wife to Marco Island, Florida. Peter Schran died on May 30, 2017 at the age of 86.

PHD:

University of California at Berkeley, 1961

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Schran, Peter. The Development of Chinese Agriculture, 1950-1959. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1969. Print.
Schran, Peter. Guerrilla Economy: The Development of the Shensi-Kansu-Ninghsia Border Region, 1937-1945. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1976. Print.
Negandhi, Anant R, and Peter Schran. China and India: Foreign Investment and Economic Development. Greenwich, Conn: JAI Press, 1990. Print.
Schran, Peter. The Dynamics of the Intra Asian Market Economy and Japanese Industrialization: Japan's East Asia Market, 1870-1940. Urbana, Ill.: College of Commerce and Business Administration, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990. Internet resource.
Schran, Peter. The Structure of Income in Communist China, 1961. Print.

VITA:

Not available