The 63rd Jingshi Business Celebrity Forum Was Successfully Held
Time :2017-12-05
On 21 November 2017, the 63rd Jingshi Business Celebrity Forum was successfully held at library building, BNU. Prof. Zhang Junsen, professor of Economics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was invited to deliver a speech themed with “Hard to get: The scarcity of women and the competition for high-income men in urban China”. The lecture was hosted by Prof. Li Shi from BNUBS.

Prof. Zhang is also the Fellow Scholar of the World Econometrics Society, an expert in China’s “Thousand Talents Program”, and the editor of the Journal of Population Economics. Professor Zhang is devoted to studying Economics relating to social issues such as crime, maternity, marriage, education, intergenerational payment and transfer, gender discrimination and pensions. He also has unique insights in family-related macroeconomic issues and was awarded the 2017 Sun Yefang Economic Science Award, one of the highest honors in Chinese Economic field.

At the beginning of the forum, Prof. Zhang first explained the core point of his essay, which is “the difficulty for elite women to find suitable partners is increasing”, and pointed out that this may be attributed to the fact that female preference income is higher than male. Subsequently, he demonstrated that high-income women may be adversely affected by empirical evidence. This conclusion is different from other existing conclusions. He emphasized the increase in male income and sex ratio effects in the income of women. He found this result by conducted online dating field experiments, census and survey. He discovered that when the income of high-income men increased, or when more outstanding men appear, due to reference-dependent preference, it is harder for high-income women to find the right partner than before.

After the speech, teachers and students actively raised questions concerning the research methods and conclusions of the essay. Professor Zhang answered their questions and put forward his own views. The seminar ended in a warm round of applause.