The opening ceremony of the Chinese Economists Society 2021 Annual Conference, sponsored by the Chinese Economists Society (CES) and Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), and hosted by the HUST School of Economics, was held on and offline on June 19.

Qi Li, President of CES and Professor of Agnes Scott College, extended warm welcome and thanks to all the guests and participants. She said that though the conference cannot be held offline due to the profound impact of COVID-19, challenges often breed opportunities and all the participants can still exchange online via the conference. She introduced that 8 guest speakers will make impressive presentations, 230 papers will be presented during the conference, "Meet the Editors", the seminar on Professional Development and other training sessions will also be delivered. Qi expressed her appreciation for the diligent efforts of CES members and the HUST School of Economics in making the conference a great success.

Zhang Jianhua, Dean and Professor at the HUST School of Economics, addressed the audience on behalf of the organizer. He was honored to co-chair the conference and was confident that HUST School of Economics, as the organizer, would overcome all difficulties to ensure the conference a success. The theme of this year’s conference is "Public Policy and Economic Behavior: China and the World amidst a Global Pandemic". Through keynote speeches, parallel sessions and seminars, he hoped that the participants would aired their opinions and views, to boost post-COVID world economic development. He expressed his heartfelt thanks to all the contributing authors, the organizing and preparatory committee, relevant staff and student volunteers, hoping that all the participants would benefit from the conference.

The conference will present three keynote speeches, five parallel sessions, a journal sharing session and a seminar on professional development from June 19 to 20. Issues such as "the impact of COVID-19 on consumption" and "China's energy and environment problems" will be discussed at over 60 sub-venues. The eight guest speakers include Colin Camerer, Professor at the California Institute of Technology and U.S. Behavioral Economist; Yan Chen, Professor at the University of Michigan and Winner of the Carolyn Shaw Bell Award; David Cutler, Professor at Harvard University; Stefano DellaVigna, Professor of the University of California at Berkeley and Co-editor of American Economic Review; Matthew O. Jackson, Professor at Stanford University and Winner of the Jean-Jacques Laffont Prize; Gordon Guoen Liu, Professor at Peking University BOYA Academy and Associate Editor of Health Economics; Emi Nakamura, Professor of the University of California at Berkeley and Winner of the John Bates Clark Medal; and Dan Silverman, Professor at Arizona State University and Co-editor of American Economic Journal.

The Chinese Economists Society (CES) is a non-profit academic organization registered in the U.S. It aims to promote academic exchanges among members and contribute to the development and dissemination of economics and management sciences in China.

CES now has hundreds of active individual members and tens of institutional members. Over the years, more than 2,000 individuals have joined CES from universities, government institutions, international organizations, industrial companies and financial service agencies in North America, Asia, Europe and other regions of the world. Many of its members have returned to China and are playing leading roles in respective fields.

Source: School of Economics

Edited by: Peng Yumeng