Business School, Beijing Normal University

Human Development Economics Research Center Was Established in Beijing

Time :2018-04-02

    On December 18, the “Human Development Economics Research Center” jointly initiated by BNU and the China Development Research Foundation was established in Beijing. The center, which is an interdisciplinary research cooperation platform, is designed to integrate the research resources of BNU, China Development Foundation, Peking University, and other areas, promote related scientific research, and scientific decision-making. Representatives from both parties attended the ceremony and delivered speeches. Nobel Prize winner in economics and Professor of the University of Chicago James Heckman, Director of the Centre for Poverty and Human Development at Oxford University, Sabina-Agil, and Professor of Stanford University Scott Rozelle expressed their congratulation through video.
    Ms. Chen Li, the deputy president of BNU, remarked on behalf of BNU and pointed out that based on the long-term cooperation, the establishment of the center was to further strengthen the results of the cooperation. She advocated the two sides to work together to attract talents and create first-class teams to further exert international influence. Lu Mai, the vice chairman and secretary-general of China Development Research Foundation, will be the co-chair of the Central Academic Committee with Professor Zhong Binglin, the former president of BNU. In the opening speech, Lu Mai expressed the hope for this milestone cooperation between the Foundation and BNU.
    Li Shi, Professor of BNUBS and the co-director of the center, said in his speech that “This center was established under the common concern and guidance of Professor Dong Qi of BNU and council president Lu Mai. The center, as a disciplinary cooperation platform and mechanism, can incorporate BNU’s research data on family income surveys, education, and psychology, the foundation’s research data on student nutrition, nutrition packages, early education, vocational education, and senior nutrition, and other organization’s data on human development, integrate and enhance experts’ level, and carry out special studies on the various stages of the human life cycle with the paradigm of economics.” A brief introduction of the research center was then given.
    Professor Lai Desheng, Dean of BNUBS pointed out in his speech that at the stage of rapid social development, human development was indeed unequal, inadequate, and incomplete. The establishment and development of the center will play an important role in social development and progress, as well as provide an excellent platform for database construction, academic exchanges, personnel training, and development of think tanks. Professor Wang Sangui, Dean of the China Poverty Alleviation Research Institute of Renmin University of China, stated that the dominant competition between countries depended mainly on human development, especially early childhood development. The establishment of the center will have a positive effect on the future research direction.

Introduction of Human Development Economics Research Center

The research center sets up an academic committee, whose presidents are Professor Zhong Binglin, the president of BNU and Lu Mai, the Secretary-General and vice chairman of the China Development Research Foundation, and invites domestic and foreign top experts as academic members. Professor Li Shi and Deputy Secretary-General Fang Jin serve as directors of the research center.
The research center plans to carry out over 20 years’ follow-up surveys across the country to obtain information on human’s psychology, health and medical treatment, education, and performance in labor market at different stages of life cycle, and to establish a micro-tracking database for human development research in China. Based on this, a multidisciplinary cross-disciplinary study on psychology, pedagogy, and economics is carried out to explore the laws of nutrition, health care, physical and mental development, ability development and their performance in labor market performance throughout the life cycle. The center aims to realize the overall development of human beings and the improvement of their abilities and a fair and sustainable development of people and society and build research institutions and research teams with international standards, providing support for the formulation of national policies and contributing to the common prosperity of mankind.