On November 11, the 2023 Autumn Quarterly Meeting for Academic Forum of Youth and Middle-aged Committee of Guangdong Economics Association was successfully held at Shenzhen University (SZU). The meeting was co-hosted by the Youth and Middle-aged Committee of Guangdong Economics Association and China Center for Special Economic Zone Research (CCSEZR), Shenzhen University (SZU) (the key research base for humanities and social sciences under the Ministry of Education of China). Ms. Li Shenglan, Executive Vice President of Guangdong Economics Association and professor of Lingnan College Sun Yat-sen University, and Prof. Tao Yitao, Director of CCSEZR and former Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Secretary of Discipline Inspection Commission of SZU delivered speeches on behalf of the organizer and the host, respectively. Prof. Zhang Ping, Deputy Director of CCSEZR, presided over the opening ceremony and introduced the preparation of the quarterly meeting. Representatives from Sun Yat-sen University, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Jinan University, South China Normal University, Southern University of Science and Technology, Sichuan University, Beijing Normal University, Shenzhen University and other universities in and outside of Guangdong Province participated in the meeting and had an in-depth discussion of cutting-edge achievements in economics and major theoretical and practical issues in China’s economic development.
Prof. Li Shenglan, Prof. Tao Yitao, Prof. Wang Chunchao (Dean of School of Economics, Jinan University), Prof. Lin Jianhao (Deputy Dean of Lingnan College Sun Yat-sen University) and Ye Maoliang (Associate Professor of SUSTech Business School) were invited to the meeting to deliver keynote speeches. Huang Yiheng, Assistant Prof. of CCSEZR, presided over the keynote speeches in the morning.
Prof. Li Shenglan outlined the characteristics and current development status of the county economy in Guangdong Province, and analyzed the problems faced by the counties for the imbalance of financial revenue and expenditure and insufficiency of human resources. She put forward countermeasures and suggestions for the high-quality development of the county economy in Guangdong Province by referencing the experience of the development of county economy in the process of urban-rural integration in developed countries.
Focusing on the theme of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Progressive Reform with Chinese Characteristics, Prof. Tao Yitao summarized the features of the “Progressive Reform” with Chinese Characteristics, and emphasized that the “Progressive Reform” with Chinese Characteristics took SEZs as an actor and influenced the performance of China’s social institutional reform through three logical paths.
Prof. Wang Chunchao delivered his speech focusing on Confucian culture and human resources development of children. He pointed out that Confucian culture emphasizes education and virtue, and under the influence of Confucian culture, parents and the society emphasize education and moral education, which enhances children’s cognitive and non-cognitive abilities.
Prof. Lin Jianhao focused on the necessity of providing a simplified version of public signals to construct a Keynesian beauty contest model, introduce information processing costs, and portray the heterogeneous behaviors of the public and experts. He pointed out that it is not necessarily preferable to increase the precision of public information when facing the differences in the information processing costs of two types of subjects. When only one public signal is released, the central bank can release a simplified public signal in order to improve social welfare.
Prof. Ye Maoliang pointed out that information intervention may affect individuals’ perception of policy fairness and subsequently affect their attitudes towards the preferences on redistribution in the context of urban renewal polices for “villages” in cities. He raised the issue of whether there are other objective measures for determining the preferences on redistribution in China for discussion by the participants.
Three breakout sessions focusing on “Industrial and Corporate Innovation”, “Digital Economy” and “Cross-cutting Issues of Society, Culture and Economy” were held at the same time in the afternoon, and 23 selected young talents reported their cutting-edge research achievements. Participants introduced the latest research and exchanged academic views on cutting-edge topics in their respective fields, and had in-depth and efficient discussions.