On November 6th, the 4th Zhang Peigang Young Scholar Award ceremony for development economics was held in Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Professor Shuai Shao of Huali Business School received this honor.
In order to promote the research and dissemination of development economics in China and continuously explore how to quickly achieve industrialization and modernization in developing countries, including China, the non-public foundation "Zhang Peigang Development Economics Research Foundation" named after the economist Mr. Zhang Peigang was established in Wuhan, Hubei Province in 1992. Among them, the "Zhang Peigang Young Scholar Award for Development Economics", which was first established in 2018, focuses on discovering and commending young Chinese economists who have innovative academic research achievements in development economics and related fields and have strong scientific research potential.
Focusing on the major theme of green, low-carbon transformation and high-quality development of China's economy, Professor Shao Shuai focused on the economic and environmental externalities of energy (resource) development and consumption, and conducted in-depth academic exploration from the aspects of climate and environmental governance mechanisms and optimization decision-making, regional economic effects of resource development activities, and mechanisms and paths for energy efficiency improvement. In the past five years, he has published (accepted) more than 90 academic papers, including more than 70 SSCI/SCI index papers and more than 20 ESI hot/highly cited papers, covering Authoritative English journals such as Nature Geoscience(Nature sub-journal), World Development, Environmental & Resource Economics, as well as Economic Research (3 papers) and Management World (2 papers). , "Economic Daily" and other domestic authoritative issues (newspapers). He has presided over more than 10 national, provincial and ministerial scientific research projects such as major projects of the National Social Science Foundation of China, outstanding youth science fund projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and surface projects (2 projects). His research achievements have won the Outstanding Achievement Award for Scientific Research in Colleges and Universities of the Ministry of Education, the Zhang Peigang Young Scholar Award for Development Economics, the Liu Shibai Economics Award, and the First Prize for Outstanding Achievements in Philosophy and Social Sciences in Shanghai.
Shao Shuai's acceptance speech
Dear seniors, leaders, colleagues, hello!
I am very happy and honored to be invited to participate in this award ceremony on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Department of Economics of Huazhong University of Science and Technology! First of all, I would like to express my warm congratulations to Zhong Lingyuxiu, the School of Economics of Huazhong University of Science and Technology with profound heritage and talents! I would also like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to all the seniors, leaders and experts who have given me valuable support and affirmation during the awarding process, and to express my sincere thanks to all the teachers and colleagues who have always cared for and helped me, and at the same time, I would like to thank all the small partners of my team for their hard work and silent dedication!
As an economist who has been halfway out of the family, in the face of so many senior celebrities today, my heart is sincerely afraid! Judging from my own academic experience, it provides a testable sample for the dry school theory proposed by Arrow. My undergraduate and master's degrees are environmental engineering, and my doctoral majors are technical economics and management, so from the initial abandonment of work from management to the study of economics, every step of my path to study seems to lack orthodox economic training. The economic knowledge and research skills that I have mastered today are all accumulated through "dry learning" on the road of problem-oriented exploration. Therefore, in this sense, it seems that my path to progress can also provide an analogous practical test sample for the theory of industrialization of agricultural countries founded by Mr. Zhang Peigang.
My main research area is resource and environmental economics, and I will dare to talk about my understanding of development economics in front of my predecessors from the perspective of my research field.
Development is based on growth, so when it comes to development economics, it is necessary to refer to the theory of economic growth. After Solo proposed the neoclassical growth theory, the economists represented by Romer in the late 1980s put forward the endogenous growth or new growth theory with "endogenous technological changes" as the core idea, demonstrating that endogenous technological progress is the real source and driving force of economic growth, relying on scientific and technological innovation and human capital accumulation can drive long-term sustained economic growth. The new growth theory gets rid of the conditions for balanced economic growth advocated by the neoclassical growth theory by being determined by the natural growth rate of the exogenous population, which is an "unpleasant result" that provides valuable policy direction for economic growth to be exempted from resource limits and pushes the economic growth theory to a new height. However, as one of the biggest external conditions for human economic and social development, the constraints of the natural ecological environment have always existed objectively. Just as Nordhaus traced the origins of carbon emissions, environmental undesirable outputs have gradually evolved from "the product of nature itself" to "byproduct" of human activities, and it can be said that natural ecological conditions and human economic systems have become a closely linked and interactive "community of life". Relying on the pioneering contributions made in the two different fields of economic growth theory and climate change economics, Romer and Nordhaus were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2018. Despite their respective emphases, the economic theories of the two scholars invariably point to the framework of long-term sustainable economic development. It can be concluded that under the demands of the times of promoting global climate governance and seeking inclusive green growth, how to rely on human innovation ability to stimulate growth potential, how to adapt to resource constraints and mitigate the negative impact of climate change, so as to achieve the sustainable development of human society, is undoubtedly a major issue that contemporary development economics must pay attention to and provide scientific responses.
Then, as far as China is concerned, the pattern of socialist economic development with Chinese characteristics determines that China needs to actively explore sustainable development theories applicable to China's national conditions. Mr. Zhang Peigang founded the theory of industrialization of agricultural countries and proposed the theoretical concept of establishing a new type of development economics; Mr. Tan Chongtai advocated the promotion of new theories of development economics derived from Chinese experience, and advocated the use of new development theories to interpret The story of China's development. Our predecessors have laid a solid foundation for the development economics to take root in China. "The more you know, the more you do, the more you do, and the more you do, the more you know." The close integration and integration of theory and practice is bound to be a "blind remedy" for effectively promoting theoretical development and practical progress. At present, China's economy has entered the stage of transforming the development mode, optimizing the economic structure, and transforming the growth momentum, and economic development is changing from a factor-driven growth model to an efficiency- and innovation-driven growth model. At the same time, in order to cope with ecological and environmental problems and adapt to the inherent requirements of sustainable development, China has successively put forward the targets of pollutant emission intensity, energy intensity and carbon intensity constraints, as well as the development strategy of promoting green transformation, ecological civilization and the construction of "beautiful China"; in 2020, China has further proposed the "double carbon" goal of striving to achieve carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. The proposal of this series of development goals in the field of environmental governance and climate governance all reflects China's responsibility to promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind. It can be said that the "track" transformation of China's economic growth and the country's major concerns about ecological and environmental issues have provided the world's largest "natural experimental field" and "golden mountain treasure house" for the innovation of development economics theory in the new era.
Therefore, as young economists in the new era, we should base ourselves on China's practice to test, correct and promote the theoretical frontiers of development economics, explore the theories of sustainable development, climate change, and resource and energy transformation with Chinese characteristics, so as to form major theoretical innovations and policy innovations that conform to the requirements of the great rejuvenation era of the Chinese nation.
The above is a little bit of my superficial understanding, for your predecessors and colleagues to criticize and correct. Finally, I sincerely wish that China's development economics can have new development! My generation can further carry forward Mr. Zhang Peigang's truth-seeking spirit!