History

   Quantitative economics is a young discipline in China. The China Quantitative Economics Association was established in 1979. Jilin University is one of the earliest institutions in China to conduct quantitative economic studies, which witnessed the history of quantitative research in China. The development of our quantitative research can be divided into three stages:

1. The Early Stage of Quantitative Economic Research and Results in the Period

    In 1980, Prof. Yishan Zhang and some other young scholars of Jilin University started their research on quantitative economics after they moved from the Department of Mathematics to the Department of Economics. Soon after that, new courses were offered such as Operational Research, Economic Forecasting and Decision-Making, and Input-Output Analysis.

    In 1982, headed by Prof. Wenquan Dong, the macroeconomic research team selected foreseeingly the important issues in China’s economic construction as their topics and successfully developed the Predictor for National Monthly Output which was designed for the State Committee for Economy and Trade(SCET). In 1983, this project passed its final stage towards application, that is, the appraisement which was chaired by Mr.Yanning Zhang, Deputy Director of SCET then. The predictor was put into practice thereafter. This project achieved the Award for Technological Progress by State Education Commission with 2nd class in 1987 and the National Award for Technological Progress with 3rd class.

    Early in 1984, Prof. Wenquan Dong and his team completed another project, China’s Short-run Macroeconomic Forecasting Models, and then delivered the results to SCET. These are the early forms of applied national macroeconomic models in China. The associated research papers are collected in Economic and Application, edited by Prof. Jiapei Wu.

2.Establishment of Research &Teaching Institution and Construction of Master’s Program

    In the 1980s,a group of faculty members of Jilin University with background in mathematics foundations, engineering, or computer science moved to the economics field to construct the discipline of quantitative economics and the associated majors.

    Some other faculty members with background in economics or management started to build up their knowledge in mathematical and econometrical theories. Thus, a new trend emerged in the development of disciplines, that is, the incorporation of natural science elements into social science studies and the interactions across disciplines. In 1985, the university established the School of Economics and Management which had the Dept. of Management Science, and offered undergraduate programs in Mathematical Statistics and Economic Information Management. In 1990, the Ministry of Education, China, approved Jilin University’s proposal to offer Master’s Degree program in quantitative economics. From then on, we started the full operation in quantitative economic studies and teaching by a comprehensive coverage of core courses as well as specialized ones. Moreover, we began to educate a number of students in our postgraduate programs in quantitative economics.

    In June, 1984, the university established the Macroeconomic Research Section based on the research team headed by Prof. Wenquan Dong. In 1988, the section developed into a specialized institute in quantitative economic theories and application, that is, the System Engineering Research Institute. It undertook research projects from both the central and the provincial governments, regarding economic forecasting and decision-making. These projects applied mid- and short-run forecasting techniques to analyze national macroeconomic trends, which yielded timely consultant reports and policy advice that were presented to the state leaders and related departments.

    In 1985, headed by Prof. Wenquan Dong, the institute collaborated again with SCET to conduct research on forecasting the business cycles in China. In March 1987, this project passed the appraisement organized by SCET. Mr. Rongji Zhu, Deputy Director of SCET then, attended the appraisement meeting and highly praised for our work. This project is the first empirical study on China’s economic fluctuation.

    In 1987, chaired by Prof. Wenquan Dong, the institute collaborated with the Investigation and Statistics Department, the People’s Bank of China (PBC) to carry out research on measurement of business cycles and forecasting models for macroeconomic and financial indices. In1988, Mr. Hongru Liu, Deputy Governor of PBC then, chaired the appraisement meeting. This project achieved the Award for Technological Progress by SEdC with 2nd class in 1990 and the National Award for Technological Progress with 3rd class in 1991.

    The institute has been monitoring and forecasting China’s macroeconomic situation on a regular basis. Consequently, it provided valuable reports for making economic decisions. From 1986 to 1990, it submitted 5 research reports to the State Council, all of which received great attention from the state leaders. In 1989, Premier Li Peng entrusted the renowned economist, Prof. Hong Ma, who was then General Secretary of the Development Research Center, State Council, to write a letter to Prof. Wenquan Dong. The letter states, “It is a valuable spirit to persevere in the research, as you have shown in your years after years of efforts in gathering economic data and making analysis of business cycles. To make economic policies, your research, …, is significant. We would like to express our sincere appreciation of your work. Premier Li passed on your reports to me and entrusted me to write you this letter. On behalf of him, I would like to thank you for what you have done.”

    Early in the 1990s, Prof. Zhenquan Zhao and his team collaborated with the Forestry Department of Jilin Provincial Government to carry out research on topics such Ecological Economic Forestry Research in Jilin Province. Three such projects were completed. Two of them gained the Award for Technological Progress by Jilin Province, with 2nd class in 1993 and 1998 respectively. One of them achieved the Award for Technological Progress by the Ministry of Forestry, with 3rd class.

    Prof. Liben Xu and his team were granted with funds three times by the so-called 863 National Project. In 1993,their work gained the Award for Technological Progress by Jilin Province, with 3rd class.

    Prof. Xiaobo Pang and Prof. Yishan Zhang chaired the research on Dynamic Input-Output Model for Jilin Province, which was as a whole, as Chinese specialists commented, the leading work in the domestic research area then and even reached an advanced level internationally speaking as far as some particular techniques were concerned.

3. Establishment of PhD Programmes in Quantitative Economics and Formation of a Competent Echelon of Academic Studies

    Approved by the Ministry of Education, we established PhD program in quantitative economics in 1993. In 1996,we constructed the post-doctoral station based on this program plus two others, namely, PhD programs in political economics and in international economics. With the enhancing ability in research and teaching, and the development of the discipline, the university renamed the System Engineering Research Institute as the Economic Quantitative Research Institute in Oct.1999. Based on the institute, we invited research staff within and outside campus, whose interests covered quantitative economics, macroeconomics, microeconomics, technical economics, and economic statistics, to establish the Research Center for Quantitative Economics. Meanwhile, the center signed agreements with the Treasury and the PBC respectively to integrate theoretical studies with economic policy-making practices and to provide macroeconomic policy advice and consultancy to the nation.

    In the past 20 years of research and teaching in quantitative economics, we produced a large number of talents, formed a well-coordinated academic echelon that has a complete range of research areas, and laid down a solid foundation in theories and application of quantitative economics. We also keep us well informed of academic information and have selected topics at the cutting edge through international exchanges of research staff.

    The center has been playing a leading role in research areas such as economic forecasting and decision-making, macroeconomic models, input-output analysis, and quantitative economics’ basic theories and their application. Its high standard results have been the focus of our Chinese peers. The academic monograph, entitled Studies on Input-Output Techniques, achieved the 2nd class award when the Ministry of Education offered its Award for Excellent Results in Humanity and Social Science Research for the first time. Analytical and Forecasting Methods of Economic Fluctuations is the first Chinese monograph that systematically discusses econometric methods and theories of business cycles. Econometrics and Econometrics—Methods and Application are high standard textbooks in econometrics in China. Other excellent books include, Modern Theory of Macroeconomic Shocks, Game Theory and Information Economics, Introduction to Network Economics, and Knowledge Economy and Information.

    Since the autumn of 1990, Prof. Guoguang Liu, renowned economist and the vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has organized the symposium of economic situation analysis and forecasting every spring and autumn. The autumn symposium yielded the Blue-Paper of China’s Economy. Research staff from our center participated all the meetings in the symposiums for more than 10 years and presented the analysis and forecasting results that were given great attention. In each summary of such symposiums, Jilin University appears at the top of the contribution list among all universities.

    The research staff also developed 5 software products in the past 10 years, namely, the Macroeconomic Monitoring and Alarming System, the Questionnaire Survey System for Nation-wide Industrial Booms, the Mid-term and Short-term Economic Forecasting System, the Models for the Fiscal Analysis Purpose and Analysis System for Business Booms, and the Time Series Analysis System. These products filled the gaps in the area of economic software development, which yielded top standard research results domestically speaking, even internationally speaking in some cases. Therefore, they had great influence among Chinese scholars and also gained an absolute advantage. They were installed in related agencies or departments such as SCET, PBC, the State Information Center, and the Treasury, and consequently have become major tools used to judge economic situation and to make mid- and short-run forecasting. They played a certain role in improving China’s overall administration standard.

    Since 1980, the research staff have undertaken 45 important research projects from both central and provincial governments, which accounted for over 2 million yuan of funds, published 18 high standard monographs and textbooks, published over 200 papers, and gained 2 National Awards for Technological Progress, and 4 Awards for Excellent Results by Ministry of Education. We also submitted 9 most valuable reports to government departments, which were given written comments and high attention by premiers during their 3 terms of office.

Current Status

   The center has made great progress since it was approved the key base of humane and social sciences by the Ministry of Education in june, 2000. By the end of june, 2003 it had 11 full-time research staffs, 16 part-time research staffs, 7 doctor tutors among the full-time staffs working in the Jilin university, 11 professors, Many of them have their Master's Degree in either mathematical statistics, or differential equations, or computer software. They are highly experienced in studies of significant theoretical and applied topics. Some of them have visited overseas institutions to do collaborative research. Due to such collaboration, they are well informed of the latest academic development and have selected topics at the cutting edge. The center also invites part-time research staff within and outside campus, including 13 professors and research fellows who are mainly from other departments of the university, or research institutions, or other universities in China. They are all leading figures in the academic area, who have great attainments in quantitative economics.
    The research staff in the center yielded a great deal of top standard research results in the areas of quantitative economics' basic theories and their application and developing and simulating tentativeness of quantitative economic software in the past 3 years. They have undertaken 28 important research projects from both central and provincial governments, which accounted for over 2.1 million yuan of funds, published 6 high standard monographs, published over 280 high standard papers, and gained 21 awards in different kind and level. they also submitted 7 most valuable reports to government departments, which were given written comments and high attention by premiers during their 3 terms of office and other leaders of station.
    Quantitative economics specialty advanced rapidly at talent training in the past 3 years. It enrolled nearly 100 candidates for doctor's degree and over 120 candidates for master's degree, and 13 of them graduated and were awarded doctor's degree and 40 were awarded master's degree. Quantitative economics specialty thrived constantly and made a great impact on this academic area widely since the base was established. In 2001, we were approved to construct the post-doctoral station based on applied economics. There are over 10 researchers in the station currently. In 2002, Quantitative economics specialty was approved the key academic discipline of state, which promote growth of the center greatly.
    The center made a great impact on Quantitative economics constantly and held many academic activities in the past 3 years.
    The center held "Advanced proseminar about capital market's innovation and economic development in China" in Beijing in 2001. Over 100 leaders, experts, scholars and security practitioners took part in the proseminar, which made a great domestic impact widely. The papers submitted for the proseminar were collected and published in Quantitative and Technical Economics Vol.18 No.13 2002.
    The center held "Advanced academic proseminar about economic policy's mechanism and money market's optimization" in Changchun in 2002. Nearly 150 experts and scholars attended the proseminar. Japanese scholar, 佐和隆光 and other over 10 specialists in quantitative economics present dissertations on the proseminar. The papers submitted for the proseminar were collected and published in Quantitative and Technical Economics Vol.19 No.10' 2002, which enlarged the influence of quantitative economics further.
    The center organized and attended actively Academic Annual Conference of Chinese Quantitative Economics Acad. In 2000, 2001, 2002. The center dispatched over 10 delegates to attend the conference at a time and submitted nearly 30 papers that won wide recognition from scholars in quantitative Economics. Over 10 papers were selected into Vol.1, Vol.2 and Vol.3 of Quantitative Economics in 21st century respectively at a time.
    The center dispatch many delegates to attend the symposium of Chinese economic situation every spring and autumn organized by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences each year, and offer them our analysis and forecasting of economic situation.

Future Planning

   (1) With the leading position, the center makes its research areas to be deeper and advanced actively. In the foundational theory research, the center follows close behind the international trend and overtakes the international level. In the application research, focusing on the urgent need in China economic development, the research center promotes synchronous development of foundational research and application research. The research staff are exerting themselves to make the center equipped with full research directions, strong research force and high-level innovative achievement. 

   (2) The center will build up a research echelon of quantitative economics that keeps ahead in domestic and well-known in internationality and will have it as foundation and indemnification for center’s development and enlargement. In process of constructing the echelon of academic studies, the center  will emphasis on optimizing the structure of age and knowledge of academic  echelon., produce the collaboration ability of the research staff and also bring out the predominance of the research group. Especially, the center needs to strengthen the education for young people and makes great efforts to build a good growing-up academic atmosphere for talents. On the other hand, producing and bringing in leading figures in weak research areas is emphasized too.

   (3)Build the center into a famous base for talents, continue the construction of PhD program and post-doctoral station, enhance the complementary ability between doctor course and master course, increase research areas and amount of master program, promote the association with other PhD program of application economics in development of the discipline and make it important discipline.

   (4)Establish research environment with entire functions and perfect management. Found standard and fair system for judging and valuing research achievement. Accelerate the extending and application of research achievement. The center will publish paper collection and annual research collection like NBER research report, hold national special topic academic conference, with regularity, set up a magazine named “Quantitative Economics Research” as soon as possible, establish information internet for the center, enhance the ability of tracking, selecting and renewing the research information, actively enlarge size and raise layer levels for exterior exchanging, build the center into the base of communication and information among national tertiary colleges as soon as possible.

   (5)The center will become scientific research institution that is highly open, talents-flowing, associative between inner and outer, competitive and innovative. Under the premise of stabile mechanism and opening, the organization of center staff outstands that full-timer is fewer but better, part-timer is broad and strong, staff come in with project and go out when finish it, research project execute open tender in combination with free selection, charter form in addition to contract form. The center will establish research money management system, scientific research midterm check system and scientific research judge system when project finished. Risk fund and commendation fund will be set up for crucial project and creative and rolling further research project will be encouraged.