From 65438 to 0984, Cai Hongbin graduated from high school with honors and studied in the Mathematics Department of Wuhan University. In the mid-1980s, China's economic reform just started and flourished. There were many schools, ideas and debates about the reform, and the style of study of Wuhan University was also very free. Thanks to such a big environment and small atmosphere, Cai Hongbin became interested in social and economic phenomena and viewpoints. He read many books on social sciences in his spare time, and later began to teach himself some economics textbooks. Before graduating from college, he made a decision-to apply for Peking University and to apply for the post-graduate of Professor Li Yining, a famous economist in China.
Through his own efforts, from 65438 to 0988, Cai Hongbin got his wish. He was admitted to the Master of National Economic Management of Peking University Economic Management Department, and studied the theory of macroeconomic operation under the guidance of teachers such as Li Yining and Qin Wanshun. Later, Peking University's rigorous and free style of study, teachers' profound knowledge and detailed explanation of economic theory, especially Li Yining's analysis and discussion on the problems existing in China's reform at that time, gave him a strong shock in knowledge and thought.
The experience of studying in Peking University had a great influence on Cai Hongbin's life path, which made him feel the charm of economics. He gradually learned to understand the principles behind economic phenomena and gradually thought deeply about some academic issues. When I was a second-year graduate student, I was selected by the department to participate in the Sino-American Ford Economics Training Course, so I had the opportunity to go to Fudan University to participate in intensive training in modern economics.
After 199 1, Cai Hongbin went to the United States to study, and entered Stanford University from 1992 to study for a doctorate in economics. The teachers and classmates he met here let him know what "behind the scenes" means. He bluntly didn't expect that there would be such a group of smart and diligent people in the world, who could get in touch with the most cutting-edge economic research in the world at once, which made him excited. In this process, he finally established his ambition to do lifelong research, because doing research is actually the most challenging and interesting thing, and always creating the latest things greatly stimulated his curiosity. He explained that doing research always tries to sort out the unsolved problems of predecessors, and at the same time there are so many extremely smart people studying these problems. Although the process is very hard, once the achievement is made, just like an artist has created a new work, the sense of accomplishment at that time cannot be expressed in words.
1997, after receiving a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University, Cai Hongbin went to the Economics Department of UCLA as an assistant professor, and successively won the Young Teacher Development Award and the Excellent Teaching Award of the Economics Department, including from 2000 to 200 1 year, and also served as a visiting assistant professor in the Economics Department of Yale University. In 2005, Mr Cai was officially invited to return to Guanghua School of Management of Peking University to teach, and one year later he became the head of the applied economics department. In July 2005, he was transferred to the position of Assistant Dean, in charge of teacher introduction, undergraduate, master's and doctoral programs and discipline construction. In August, according to the arrangement of the college, he no longer served as the head of the Department of Applied Economics.
The outstanding students of Guanghua in the past have now become well-known professors and leaders of teaching and scientific research management in Guanghua. Teacher Cai Hongbin has been devoted to the research in the fields of game theory, enterprise theory, corporate finance and new political economy for a long time, and his research interests are very extensive. His research results have many innovations in theory and have been recognized by international peers. He has published more than ten articles in top international academic journals of economics and finance, such as American Economic Review and Journal of Financial Economics. Teacher Cai is also an anonymous reviewer of more than 30 academic journals (including AER, AER, AER, AER, AER, etc.), the National Science Foundation of the United States, the Canadian Social and Humanities Research Council and the Hong Kong Research Grants Council. His continuous investment in economic research reflects a scholar's enthusiasm and persistence in the pursuit of knowledge.
Let's take a look at the new political economy closely related to China in Cai's research. He cooperated with Daniel Treisman, an academic star in the Department of Political Science at UCLA, focusing on the influence of centralization and decentralization of government on government behavior and economic growth at all levels, challenging popular views in this field. Scholars have always believed that decentralization can promote competition among lower-level governments, thus improving efficiency. Teacher Cai and his collaborators used theoretical models to explain that only when all lower-level governments are equal can decentralization bring about efficiency improvement; Otherwise, decentralization will cause the loss of efficiency and aggravate the original imbalance between regions. The implication of this conclusion is that competition will stimulate local governments, but there is an important premise that the starting point between local governments must be equal.
Generally speaking, if two competitors have the same starting line and little difference in strength in a game, then the competitors have enough motivation to win the game; This is also the result that the system founder most wants to see. However, if the starting line between competitors is different, such as letting western cities compete with Shanghai, then it will not play an incentive role; Because Shanghai itself is more developed than the western cities, it will do better than these western cities without efforts, and no matter how hard the western cities try, it will be difficult to catch up in the short term. Such a competitive situation can not achieve the expected effect of stimulating competition. Especially in China, because the development of many places is inherently unbalanced, if the government is too decentralized, it will not only fail to stimulate, but also aggravate the inequality between places. In this way, developed provinces and cities will become more and more developed by using their original advantages, and backward areas will become more and more backward because they are not competitive, that is, the rich are richer, the poor are poorer, and the gap between the rich and the poor is greater.
In addition, Mr Cai and his collaborators also studied the relationship between decentralization and investment environment, and the success of China's economic reform and decentralization. The international theoretical circle has given a positive evaluation to Cai et al.' s research in this field. They are "happy to see the emergence of more convincing new ideas." The reason why Mr. Cai Hongbin returned to China is that he hopes to combine the frontier theory of economics with China's economic practice and strive to become a world-class China scholar. Teacher Cai believes that this is a very high goal and needs a large number of economic researchers to do it step by step. With the rapid economic growth and the deepening of market mechanism reform in China, the economic problems and policy choices we are facing are becoming more and more complicated, and the requirements for economic research and related policy analysis are greatly improved. Teacher Cai pointed out that due to the influence of resource endowment, history and culture, population structure, economic development stage, institutional background and other factors, China's economic problems often show obvious particularity, so we can't copy the existing theories. However, we should also realize that many social and economic problems in China are similar in many developing countries. Therefore, some new theoretical achievements, new ideas and new discoveries based on the actual situation in China will have its significance all over the world. Because of this * * *, the study of China's economic problems should greatly enrich the content of economics. Therefore, being a world-class China scholar is both realistic and increasingly feasible.
About the experience of learning, Teacher Cai told us the difference between doing research at home and abroad. In his view, unlike domestic research, foreign research is a very specialized work under a detailed division of labor. Specific reasons include:
First, there are a lot of foreign data and a fine division of labor. There are specialized personnel and institutions responsible for collecting, analyzing and summarizing data and facts. These basic data provide convenience for further theoretical research. In China, due to various reasons, there is a lack of induction and systematic summary of data and basic facts.
Second, the situation abroad is relatively simple, and the meaning of a policy or a data is relatively intuitive. As long as it is clearly described, it is easy to be understood; However, the situation in China is much more complicated. After the introduction of a policy, this may not be the case at all. In addition, there is a story behind China's data, including how this data was obtained, what the people who filled in the data thought at that time, and so on. If you don't understand the background of these policies or data, and simply analyze the data and draw conclusions mechanically, then the grasp of the facts will be biased.
Therefore, Cai believes that to do research in China, we must have our own views on China's economic problems and have a good grasp and judgment on China's social, economic and institutional aspects. This is where young scholars returning from abroad need to learn from the older generation and scholars who have returned home for a long time. For example, Li Yining, Zhang, and other scholars have put forward many original views on China's economic development, which benefited from their extensive contact with China's social and economic reality. By visiting various places, communicating with people at different levels of society, coupled with their own ability of acceptance and judgment, we can feel and grasp which issues are more important and novel, and continue to study them in depth. Finally, we can analyze them with the help of appropriate research tools. On this basis, innovative achievements will continue to emerge.
So what can China do to create knowledge with world influence? Teacher Cai believes that we must base ourselves on China and look at the world, and try our best to use modern rigorous research methods, including theoretical methods and empirical methods, to study the China issue in a down-to-earth manner. The research done should not only have international standards, but also contribute to policy analysis and public discussion in China.
In order to meet this requirement, Mr. Cai Hongbin led the establishment of the Morris Institute for Economic Policy in Peking University, which brought together some of the best domestic researchers, the best China international economists and top foreign scholars interested in the China issue. Teacher Cai hopes that the Institute can adopt modern research methods to deeply analyze China's economic policies from an empirical perspective. Their goals are: to do a good job in China research, on the one hand, they hope that the research results can be published in top international magazines and recognized by international academic circles; On the other hand, it is hoped that some targeted research based on theory and practice can provide useful reference opinions or have a positive impact on the formulation of relevant domestic policies. Guanghua's applied economics department is small in scale and has a long history. However, Guanghua School of Management attaches importance to the tradition of applied economics research, which can even be traced back to before the formal establishment of the college. As early as 1985, when the Department of Economic Management was established in Peking University, Mr. Li Yining was appointed as the head of the department and devoted himself to the study of social and economic problems in China. Today's Guanghua School of Management was established on the basis of the former Department of Economic Management and Management Science Center. Over the years, under the construction of teachers such as Li Yining, Qin Wanshun, Zhu and Zhang, Guanghua Department of Applied Economics has formed a strong research atmosphere, accumulated strong research strength and achieved a series of research results with wide value. A new generation of young scholars, including many doctors graduated from famous foreign universities, have also grown rapidly and gradually emerged after joining Guanghua Department of Applied Economics.
In the past year or so, the Department of Applied Economics has made remarkable progress on the original basis. The first is the quantity and quality of published papers. Last academic year, four teachers from the Department of Applied Economics published papers in international A-class journals, which are also common in domestic core journals. What is more gratifying is that the young faculty and graduate students in the department have made great achievements, which is evidence of the vigorous development of Guanghua Department of Applied Economics. Teacher Cai said that such progress is inseparable from the attention paid to academic research by the Department of Applied Economics, and it is also the result of the joint efforts of all teachers and students.
Followed by the academic seminar every Tuesday. Teacher Cai believes that high-quality academic seminars and lectures can not only ensure a good research atmosphere, but also promote exchanges and cooperation between teachers and students and international academic circles. Therefore, the Department of Applied Economics has gradually established a perfect seminar system in the past year, and regularly invited more active scholars in related fields to Guanghua to show their research results. Teachers and students attending the seminar fully communicate with the speaker, and both sides can benefit from free discussion. At the same time, the department will also arrange for young teachers and students to meet with internationally renowned scholars formally or informally. Teacher Cai hopes that this initiative will provide young teachers and students with opportunities to participate in top international research, and ultimately enhance the research strength of the Department of Applied Economics.
In addition, the adjustment of postgraduate teaching and training plan and the curriculum are more in line with international standards in breadth and difficulty. Postgraduates not only have more active discussions with each other, but also have more extensive and in-depth cooperation with teachers. Referring to several seminars organized by graduate students spontaneously, Mr. Cai said that the enthusiasm and autonomy of graduate students for research at this stage is the basis for them to go abroad for further study or engage in research and teaching in domestic universities and related institutions in the future.
As the assistant of the new dean, Mr. Cai Hongbin is mainly responsible for the introduction of teachers, discipline construction and the management of undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs. He hopes that in the next few years, Guanghua's overall research ability will be improved by introducing high-level research talents, encouraging research and strengthening management. Teacher Cai also said that due to the effectiveness of economics in cultivating analytical ability, the college will strengthen economic education in undergraduate teaching and strive to implement undergraduate projects combining economy and finance next year. Meanwhile, Mr. Cai Hongbin, who is also a professor in the Department of Applied Economics, will continue to devote himself to the economic research he loves. He believes that the Department of Applied Economics, under the leadership of the new president, Mr. Gong Liutang, will make concerted efforts with Qi Xin to achieve greater development.