In just two decades, China has transformed into a massive e-commerce market with 800 million users, accounting for nearly half of global online retail sales. This is especially remarkable since e-commerce—typically marked by small sellers and impersonal, stranger-to-stranger transactions—relies on robust market institutions for contract enforcement and fraud prevention. Yet, China has achieved explosive growth in this sector despite its underdeveloped legal and institutional frameworks.

In From Click to Boom, Lizhi Liu, Assistant Professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, argues that China pioneered a model of "institutional outsourcing" between the state and digital platforms. By delegating parts of its governance responsibilities to platforms, the government enables them to set rules and enforce regulations, spurring innovation of platforms while maintaining oversight. Based on over a decade of field research, tens of millions of platform data points, and a randomized controlled trial across three provinces, the book examines how developing countries with weak institutional foundations can collaborate with platforms to build new governance models—and the implications of this state-platform partnership for global institutional development.

On April 23, Lizhi Liu will discuss her new book with Tianguang Meng, Professor in the Department of Politics Science at Tsinghua University, and explore the development of China's e-commerce under this collaborative governance model.