From July 6 to July 19 2018, the Inaugural China Summer Institute of Public Economics (CSIPE), organized by the National Institute for Fiscal Studies of Tsinghua University (NIFS) and Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management (Tsinghua SEM), held at Tsinghua SEM. The CSIPE aims to promote communications and cooperation among scholars in the field of public finance both domestic and abroad, and to provide training on frontier issues and methodologies in the field of public finance for young Chinese scholars and senior doctoral students, so as to promote the development of Chinese public finance.

The first part of CSIPE, the International Academic Conference, was held from July 7 to July 8, 2018. It covered public finance research topics including government taxes and expenditure policies, government intervention and labor market, social insurance, tax policy and corporate behavior, etc. The conference invited most active young scholars from universities like Columbia University, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Texas A&M University, Indiana University, Fudan University, Tsinghua University to give presentations. More than 80 public finance scholars from different universities and research institutions attended the conference.

Mansfield Freeman Chair Professor BAI Chong-En, Executive Associate Dean of Tsinghua SEM and Bureau Chief of NIFS, and Wojciech Kopczuk, Professor of Economics at Columbia University, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Public Economics, co-organizer of the first CSIPE, delivered their speeches at the beginning of the conference. Professor BAI Chong-En welcomed the arrival of the distinguished guests. He pointed out that because of the strong influence of the Chinese government in the economy, the issues in public economics are very important in China, and there is a huge demand for research on these issues. The NIFS hopes to contribute to the cultivation of new research forces in China's public economics, to the exchange of Chinese and foreign scholars in this field of research, and to the in-depth development of China's public economic research, and these motivate NIFS to finance the CSIPE. He hoped that this event will be successful, and promised that NIFS will continue to finance and contribute to China’s research on public economic issues in the future.

Mansfield Freeman Chair Professor BAI Chong-En, Executive Associate Dean of Tsinghua SEM and Bureau Chief of NIFS

Wojciech Kopczuk, Professor of Economics at Columbia University, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Public Economics

Professor Erzo F.P. Luttmer of Economics at Dartmouth College

From July 9 to 13, 2018, 30 formal admitted students and 20 attendees selected from over 200 applicants gathered in Tsinghua SEM, to participate in the five-day English course study. Professor Erzo F.P. Luttmer of Economics at Dartmouth College

Group Photo of the International Academic Conference of CSIPE

From July 15 to 17, 2018, the students attended the three-day Chinese course. This lecture invited six scholar officials who have deeply participated in the reform of China's fiscal system and have a deep understanding of trade-off, constraints, and difficulties in the reforms. They are LOU Hong, Director of the Government Procurement Management Office of the Ministry of Finance, LIU Shangxi, Secretary of the Party Committee and Dean of the Ministry of Finance’s Academy of Fiscal Sciences, WANG Weixing, former director of the Policy Research Office of the Ministry of Finance, XIANG Zhongxin, deputy director of the Policy Research Office of the Ministry of Finance, LIU Kegu, former deputy governor of the China Development Bank and former deputy governor of Liaoning Province, and GAO Peiyong, deputy dean of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the Institute of Economics director.

Group Photo of CSIPE’s Chinese Conference

In the afternoon of the July 18, CSIPE held a closing ceremony. LOU Jiwei, chairman of the National Council for Social Security Fund and the former Minister of Finance, delivered his keynote speech as honored guest. He also presented the Certificates of Honor to three honorary students.

Minister LOU highly acknowledged the significance of this summer school and encouraged young scholars to deepen their economic understanding and to do research with depth, breadth and height.

Minister LOU delivering a speech

Minister LOU presented the Certificates of Honor to the students

Group Photo