The 2019 Lingnan Macroeconomics Seminar Successfully Launched

December 6 to 8 witnessed the successful launch of the 2019 Lingnan Macroeconomics Seminar at Lingnan college. The seminar was co-sponsored by Lingnan College of Sun Yat-sen University, the SYSU Research Institute of China Transformation and Open Economy, and the Economic Research Journal. More than 60 experts and scholars from over  20 universities and research institutes including Peking University, Renmin University of China, Nankai University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Sichuan University, Sun Yat-sen University, University of Macau, Emory University and Sydney University participated in this seminar, exchanging and discussing the most cutting-edge research results of macroeconomics.

On the morning of the 7th, the opening ceremony of the seminar started at Room 402 of the MBA Building. Prof. CAI Guowei – Deputy Dean of Lingnan College – presided over the ceremony. Professor LU Jun, Dean of Lingnan College, Professor WANG Xi, Director of China Institute of Transformation and Open Economy, and Professor ZHENG Hongliang, associate editor-in-chief of the Economic Research Journal, addressed the attendees. This seminar coincided with the 30th anniversary of Lingnan College. Taking the opportunity, Dean LU expressed his warm welcome to the guests and introduced to the attendees the history and heritage of Lingnan College. Professor WANG Xi then introduced to everyone the initial reason of holding the macroeconomics seminar and its future prospects. Professor ZHENG Hongliang shared with the participants the standards of the Economic Research Journal and his experience submitting papers to the journal, which  provides invaluable guidance for young researchers with regards to essay writing.

The seminar consisted of keynote speeches, and special-subject forums covering topics of monetary policy, fiscal policy, macro-finance, and economic growth.

The keynote speeches were delivered in four sections, two of which were on the morning of the 7th immediately following the opening ceremony. Associate Professor ZHANG Ping – Deputy Director of the Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Associate Editor-in-chief of the Economic Research Journal – presented the topic on “Exploration of Facts and Theories of China's Macro Experience”. He specified the empirical facts related to the process of China’s transformation toward high-quality development, with debates on the existing theories, and raised questions to spur audience’s in-depth thinking.

Professor WANG Xi gave a speech on the subject of “Some Exploration Experiences of the Institutionalization of Macroeconomics” in which combining his own research and thinking, illustrated his endeavors on theorizing China’s system with the macro-economics framework, he pointed out the current obstacles in the institutionalization research, and mapped out the key issues and prospects for future studies.

The third section took place on that afternoon. Professor CHEN Kaiji with Emory University of U.S. reported on his latest research results. Based on the statistics of Chinese banks credit and loan, by separating the infrastructure construction from the monetary and fiscal policies, he found that after the financial crisis in 2008, different from other industries, the infrastructure saw their companies’ credit and loan allocation unbound by the company’s ownership.  

The morning of the 8th opened up the fourth section, in which Professor James Morley with the University of Sydney analyzed the impact of the volatility of inflation rate on the Philips Curve since the financial crisis. The research found that in determining the change in the concurrent inflation-rate, the anticipated inflation rate and the output gap had greater weight. It was believed that, while opening up the economy, we should pay more attention to the anticipated inflation level and the international trade status.

The five special-subject forums carried out further discussions in-depth. The “Monetary Policy” forum discussed the uncertainty of China’s monetary policy and economy, the risk-avoidance of the commercial banks assets, government guarantee, and the communication with the Central Bank. These topics reflected the current academic interests and provided valuable reference. The “Macro Finance” forum discussed around the bank risks, the opening of the capital market, household investment, and economic uncertainty. The papers on this forum shed light on novel research topics, displaying a variety of research methods. The forum of “Fiscal Policy” carried out an enthusiastic discussion on the distortions of labor-income-tax, the relation between fiscal policy and financial stability, and the new tax-relief policies. At the forum “Economic Growth”, academic views were exchanged on the compensation policies for distorted tax, the flexibility of labor supply, and the technological advancement. The forum “Real Estate and Debt Risks” centered the discussion on local debt risks, local financing platforms, and real-estate speculation investment issues, cutting from diverse perspectives and using various methods in the analysis.

Besides, a symposium was launched on the evening of Dec 7th for the guests with the Economic Research Journal and the seminar scholars. Professor ZHENG Hongliang, associate editor-in-chief of the Economic Research Journal; and Professor ZHANG Ping was present on the symposium. Professor ZHENG shared his observation that the young researchers nowadays were using better technical analysis approaches, but some of their researched subjects in the submitted papers were not significant. The Economic Research Journal valued subjects of significance, especially those related to the Central Government policies and combining the theory with the practice; only such were realistic and specific subjects worth studying. Professor ZHANG remarked that Economic Research Journal insisted that an economics theory should include both the abstract cognitive as well as the empirical cognitive; the abstract cognitive being indispensable for it provided the underlying logic basis, but it could not be independent of the empirical cognitive. In the final interactions, both professors actively responded to the questions and concerns raised by the participants.

The Lingnan Macroecnomics Seminar was intended to be a high-level platform for the young scholars from universities and research institutions to exchange their diverse views on academic issues. This session specifically focused on the latest macroeconomics topics, having broadened the path for young scholars to publish their research results on domestic journals of importance. During the seminar, the services provided by our school were highly recognized by the participating scholars.