David Dollar is a senior fellow with the Foreign Policy and Global Economy and Development programs in the John L. Thornton China Center. He is a leading expert on China's economy and U.S.-China economic relations. From 2009 to 2013 he was the U.S. Treasury's economic and financial emissary to China.

In that capacity, he facilitated the economic and financial policy dialogue between the United States and China. That included the formal meetings, notably the annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue, as well as constant exchanges between the treasury department and Chinese economic policymakers at all levels. Based at the U.S. embassy in Beijing, Dollar served as treasury’s eyes and ears on the ground and reported back to Washington on economic and policy developments in China.

Dollar worked at the World Bank for 20 years, and from 2004 to 2009, was country director for China and Mongolia. His other World Bank assignments primarily focused on Asian economies, including South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, and India. From 1995 to 2004, Dollar worked in the World Bank’s research department.

Prior to his World Bank career, Dollar was an assistant professor of economics at Univeristy of California Los Angeles, spending a semester in Beijing teaching at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He has a doctorate in economics from New York University and a bachelor’s in Chinese history and language from Dartmouth College. He has written extensively about economic reform in China, globalization, and economic growth.