At the end of July 2025, renowned economist Professor YAO Yang officially joined Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SUFE) on a full-time basis, taking up the position of Dishui Lake Advanced Finance Institute, SUFE (“SUFE-DAFI” or the “Institute”). This appointment further advanced his academic layout in teaching and research fields including development economics, new political economics, and the study of China’s economic system.
This significant news not only demonstrated the Institute’s strategic resolve in gathering top-tier academic talent and building a high-level research platform, but also injected a solid cornerstone into promoting the development of an independent knowledge system for economics with Chinese characteristics.
In fact, prior to his official appointment, Professor YAO Yang had already established close academic interactions and cooperative relationships with SUFE and SUFE-DAFI.
Since 2024, he has been invited to the Institute on multiple occasions to teach, deliver lectures, and engage in exchanges. In December 2024, at the 12th lecture of the Dishui Lake Expert Insights” hosted by SUFE-DAFI, Professor YAO Yang delivered a lecture titled An Analysis of Current Domestic and International Economic Situations, where he conducted a comprehensive analysis of China’s global position in manufacturing, new trends in enterprises going global, and the impact of adjustments in real estate and fiscal policies on domestic demand. Subsequently, during a paper seminar, he systematically presented his latest research achievements on the impact mechanism of government deleveraging, which aroused enthusiastic responses from teachers, students, and professionals in the financial industry present.
In the spring semester of 2025, Professor YAO Yang offered the course Thematic Research on Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era at SUFE-DAFI. Targeting students of the Master of Finance (MF) program, the course systematically explained the theoretical context and policy logic of socialist economic thought with Chinese characteristics for a new era. The course was not only rich in content and clearly problem-oriented, but also encouraged students to put forward independent thoughts based on China’s institutional practices, earning high praise from students.
Additionally, as a keynote speaker at the 6th China Applied Economics Annual Conference, Professor YAO Yang once again came to Dishui Lake to deliver an in-depth speech titled “Reflections on Deleveraging in 2017-2018”. He systematically reviewed the effects and subsequent impacts of the deleveraging policy during that period, pointing out that while local government deleveraging reduced systemic risks, it also squeezed enterprises’ financing capacity and investment willingness, forming a “reverse financial accelerator” effect. He proposed that starting from the institutional framework, we should comprehensively consider fiscal governance and macroeconomic stability, and build a more resilient policy mechanism in the new economic cycle.
As a high-end educational platform managed under a special mechanism and co-founded by the Lingang New Area Administrative Committee, SUFE, and Lingang Group in accordance with the model of world-class business schools, SUFE-DAFI has, since its establishment, always been guided by emerging finance and driven by industry integration. It is committed to building a globally leading and innovative system for cultivating high-end financial elites, and actively serves the functional upgrading of Shanghai as an international financial center and national major strategies.
In the future, under the leadership of Professor YAO Yang’s profound academic accumulation and institutional experience, SUFE-DAFI will further consolidate its foundation in research areas such as development economics, new political economics, and the study of financial systems with Chinese characteristics. It will systematically build a “theory-institution-policy” collaborative linkage mechanism for research and talent cultivation, continuously enhance the Institute’s comprehensive capabilities in academic research, policy advice, and international cooperation, and contribute more forward-looking and actionable intellectual support to the development of an independent knowledge system for Chinese economics and the construction of the core functional area of Shanghai’s world-class financial center.
Profile of YAO Yang
YAO Yang, a native of Xingan County, Jiangxi Province, was born in Xi’an in 1964. He previously served as Dean of the National School of Development (NSD) at Peking University (November 2012 - January 2024), Director of the China Center for Economic Research (CCER) at Peking University (January 2010 - June 2025), and Executive Dean of the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD) at Peking University (January 2016 - October 2024). He is also a Boya Distinguished Professor at Peking University. Currently, Professor YAO holds multiple positions, including Editor-in-Chief of China Economic Quarterly (CEQ), Visiting Professor at Peking University, Chairman of the China Economics Annual Conference, Chairman of the Contemporary Economics Foundation, Member of the China 50 Forum, and Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of the China Finance 40 Forum (CF40).
Professor YAO’s main research fields include new political economics and China’s economic growth under open conditions. He has published over 100 academic papers in domestic and international journals such as Social Sciences in China, The American Economic Review, and The American Political Science Review. His major works include: Monographs: Institutions and Efficiency: A Dialogue with North (new edition titled Institutions and Economic Growth: A Dialogue with New Institutional Economics), Economic Reform as Institutional Innovation (both Chinese and English versions), Development Economics,and The Meaning of Economics;co-authored books: Three Scholars’ Talks on Institutional Economics, Our Time, Good Governance: Insights from Confucian Culture,and Ownership Transformation in China; collected works: China and the West: A Pragmatic Confucian’s View, Freedom, Justice, and Institutional Change, Land, Institutions, and Agricultural Development, The World Significance of China’s Path, Walking Between the Study and Reality,and Economic Commonsense: Changes and Constants in China’s Economy; edited books: Transition China: Social Justice and Equality in the Transformation Period and Forty Years of Chinese Economics; co-edited books: China 2049, Globalization and Economic Growth in China, China’s Economic Reform and Growth, China’s New Narrative,and Chinese Development Economics (forthcoming). He has also published over 100 popular articles and commentaries in magazines and newspapers such as Dushu (Reading), Southern Weekend,and People’s Daily, and has written for English-language publications including Foreign Affairs, Financial Times,and China Daily. He is a columnist for Project Syndicate. Professor YAO Yang is recognized as one of the representative contemporary economists who combine profound academic depth with significant public influence.
