With the 75th anniversary celebration of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (ZUEL) approaching, the 2023 Annual meeting of the Chinese Economists Society (CES), sponsored by CES and hosted by the School of Business Administration (SBA) of ZUEL, was grandly opened at the university. Zhou Mingshan, Vice President of ZUEL, introduced the guests and presided over the opening ceremony. Prof. Liu Qihong, President of the CES, delivered the welcome speech, and Prof. Wu Haitao, Dean of the SBA, gave an acknowledgement speech.
Themed “Promoting China’s economic Development with High Quality”, the conference invited three Nobel Prize winners in Economic Sciences, Prof. Eric Maskin of Harvard University, Alvin Roth of Stanford University and Joshua Angrist of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as Prof. Lin Yifeng of Peking University to give keynote speeches through different forms. At the same time, 6 invited forums and 88 parallel forums are set up to build up a high-end, cutting-edge, multi-perspective, and large- scale conference.
Hou Zhenfa, Secretary of the Party Committee of ZUEL, said that the world is undergoing the unprecedented changes unseen in the past century, and only with a deep understanding of active response and swift change can we meet the requirements of accelerating the stable recovery and development of the world economy in the new era. ZUEL, as a university founded by the Communist Party and with red genes, is forging ahead to become a “world-class university with distinctive features of in-depth integration of economics and law”.
As the organizer of the conference, the SBA adheres to the vision of “based on mid-south, facing the world and becoming a first-class School of Business integrated by economics, law and management”. He called on the participating experts and scholars to jointly explore the important direction of world economic development, thoroughly summarize China’s economic development experience and optimization path, and contribute wisdom to the world economy out of the crisis at an early date and build a community with a shared future for mankind.
In the keynote report, Prof. Eric Maskin of Harvard University, 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize Winner in Economic Sciences made a report entitled “A Resolution of Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem”. Although the traditional assumption of independence of Arrow independent alternative conditions was widely respected by scholars, this assumption will make voting rules insensitive to the strength of voters’ preferences. Based on this, the study proposes a modified version of the independence condition that could improve voting rules for elections.
Prof. Alvin Roth of Stanford University, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics delivered a speech on the theme of “Economists as Engineers: How Game Theory Led to Practical Market Design” to introduce the important role of game theory for market design through specific cases.
The renowned economist Lin Yifu from Peking University gave a speech on “Development Ideas and Development Performance: A New Structural Economics Perspective” which analyzes the reasons for slow economic development in some developing countries from a new structural economics perspective. In addition, Prof. Joshua Angrist of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics, will also share the topic.
In addition to the main report, the annual meeting has hosted six specially invited forums. Prof. Shangjin Wei from Columbia University, Prof. Wei Xiong from Princeton University, Prof. Jin Feng from Fudan University, Prof. Kathleen McGarry from University of California, Los Angeles, Prof. Alessandro Acquisti from Carnegie Mellon University, Prof. Lin Ping from Shandong University, Prof. Tan Guofu from University of Southern California, Prof. Marshall Van Alstyne from Boston University, Prof. Jin Zhe from University of Maryland, Prof. Luis Aguiar from University of Zurich, Prof. Fang Hanming from University of Pennsylvania, Prof. Zhao Yaohui from Peking University, Prof. Huang Jikun from Peking University, Prof. Li Shi from Zhejiang University, Prof. Scott Rozelle from Stanford University and Prof. Wan Guanghua from Fudan University acted as the keynote speakers.
In recognition of the important role played by scholars in promoting China’s reform and opening up, expanding academic exchanges between China and other countries, and strengthening academic research on the Chinese economy, five awards were set up at 2023 Annual meeting of CES”.
Among them, Prof. Qian Yingyi and Prof. Tian Guoqiang won theDistinguished Fellow Awards; Prof. Zhang Xin, Prof. Song Shunfeng and Prof. Lin Shuanglin received the Distinguished Service Awards; Prof. Yao Shujie and Prof. Song Bingtao won the Pillar of Support Awards; Yuan Zhe from Zhejiang University won the Chow Best Paper Award; Qiu Xincheng from the University of Pennsylvania and Yi Yu from the London School of Economics received the Rising Star Award.
Among 573 submitted papers received by CES, 272 were accepted, and nearly 400 people attended the meeting offline. Experts and scholars have conducted in-depth discussions on such issues as “Solution to Arrow’s impossible Theorem”, “Large-scale technology loan Model”, “Development model and development performance”, “External environment and internal driving force of China’s industrial upgrading”, “Chinese household consumption in the new development pattern”, “Mental health status of China’s elderly” and “The Belt and Road Policy from the perspective of Development Economics” papers were submitted, 272 were accepted, and nearly 400 people attended the meeting offline. Experts and scholars have conducted in-depth discussions on such issues as “Solution to Arrow’s impossible Theorem”, “Large technology loan Model”, “Development model and development performance”, “External environment and internal driving force of China’s industrial upgrading”, “Chinese household consumption in the new development pattern”, “Mental health status of China’s elderly” and “The Belt and Road Policy from the perspective of Development Economics”.
The annual meeting also organized the Policy Summit Forum, Dean’s Forum, etc. Experts and scholars from Peking University, Southwest University of Finance and Economics, Texas A&M University, Beijing Normal University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Capital University of Economics and Business and other universities held a heated discussion on “promoting China’s economic development with high quality”.
Established in New York in May 1985, CES has more than 1,000 members. As an organization of Chinese economists with great international influence, it hasbeen committed to promoting China’s reform and opening up, expanding academic exchanges between China and other countries, and strengthening academic research on China’s economy, and has played a pivotal role in enhancing China’s market-oriented reform and opening up to the outside world, economic and cultural exchanges between China and the world and the development of Chinese economics. Since 2010, CES has held an annual meeting in China every year, and this meeting is the first offline annual meeting held in China after the epidemic.
