BIOGRAPHY
SHORT BIO:
Gary Lai is an economist and author whose writing has appeared in the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), The Jakarta Post, the Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, Daily Caller (USA), City Monitor (UK), Le Monde, and the Daily Monitor (Uganda), among other publications.
His first book, Poverty and the Unequal Society in Hong Kong, was published by Penguin Random House SEA. It won a Goody Business Book Award and was nominated for several others.
His interest in poverty issues led him to found the anti-poverty campaign TKO Poverty at Columbia University in 2005. For his work, he was nominated for a Junior Chamber International Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award.
Lai received a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Southern California and a Master of Economics from the University of Hong Kong.
LONG BIO:
Gary Lai is an economist and author whose writing has appeared in the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), The Jakarta Post, the Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, Daily Caller (USA), City Monitor (UK), Le Monde, and the Daily Monitor (Uganda), among other publications, on topics ranging from Aboriginal employment in British Columbia to girls' education in Hong Kong.
His first book, Poverty and the Unequal Society in Hong Kong, was published by Penguin Random House SEA. It won a Goody Business Book Award and was nominated for several others, including the Cundill History Prize.
His interest in poverty issues led him to found the anti-poverty campaign TKO Poverty at Columbia University in 2005. For his work, he was nominated for a Junior Chamber International Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award.
Lai received a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Southern California and a Master of Economics from the University of Hong Kong. He also attended the University of British Columbia Allard School of Law and Columbia University.
Born in Hong Kong, Lai grew up in Sugar Land, Texas, and Edmonton, Alberta before returning to live in his city of birth in the 2010s and 2020s — experiencing the transformation of one of the world’s greatest megalopolises in the Greater Bay Area. He currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia.
He is recognized for his contributions to public discourse on economics, public policy, and culture, and for advancing understanding of the economic welfare and lived experiences of transnational communities. Through his writing in major international and Canadian publications, and as the author of an award-winning nonfiction work, he has brought clarity to the conditions affecting the more than 300,000 Canadians living in Hong Kong, illuminating how global cities shape access to public goods, economic security, and civic life. His work, marked by analytical rigor and literary insight, has fostered informed dialogue across borders and contributed to a deeper public understanding of shared social and economic challenges.
