A Brief Introduction to the Institute of Economics
of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS)

The predecessor of The Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is the Institute of Social Survey of the Chinese Education and Culture Foundation, which was established in 1929. In 1934, the Institute of Social Survey merged with the Institute of Social Sciences of the Academia Sinica, with the name of the Institute of Social Sciences remained unchanged. It was renamed the Institute of Social Studies of the Academia Sinica in 1945. After the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, it was renamed the Institute of Social Studies of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). In 1953, it was again renamed the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The current name as the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) has been used ever since 1977. The Institute of Economics has developed into a comprehensive economic research institution, covering the studies of theoretical economics, applied economics, and historical economics (including economic history and history of economic thought) and gives priority to basic theoretical studies.

Ⅰ. Research Directions and Tasks

The Institute of Economics studies both theoretical and applied economics. Currently, it focuses on exploring China’s economic development path and studying socialist economic issues with Chinese characteristics. On the one hand, it studies important theoretical and practical issues, such as industrial structure adjustment, income distribution among urban and rural residents, macro-control and public policy implementation, etc. On the other hand, it studies China’s modern and contemporary economic history and the national and international histories of economic thought. In particular, it closely follows the new trends in the development of economic thought in the field, extensively adopts and absorbs cutting-edge methods and new theories, and serves the purpose of China’s social and economic development through comprehensive studies on relevant subjects.

Ⅱ. Staff Composition and Main Research Activities

At present, the Institute of Economics has a total staff number of 135, including 46 senior researchers, 35 associate researchers, and 24 intermediate researchers. These three types of researchers account for 78% of total staff.

The Institute of Economics currently comprises 8 departments. Their main research fields are as follows:

(1) Department of Macroeconomics: It studies macroeconomics and institutional economics and international economics closely related to macroeconomic issues.

(2) Department of Microeconomics: It studies microeconomics and the institutions, policies and theories relevant to the issues of China’s enterprises.

(3) Department of Political Economics/Department of Classical Political Economics: It studies basic theories of political economics, and explores major theoretical and practical issues arising in the course of China’s economic system transition and economic development.

(4) Department of Economic Growth Theory: It studies theoretical and empirical issues concerning domestic and international economic growth and fluctuation.

(5) Department of China’s Contemporary Economic History: It studies the economic development history of the People’s Republic of China, economic history of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan since 1949, and economic history of revolutionary base areas and liberated areas during the period of 1927-1949.

(6) Department of China’s economic history: It mainly studies China’s modern economic history, supplemented with China’s ancient economic history.

(7) Department of Contemporary Western Economic Theory: It follows the latest development of modern Western economic theory and summarizes the development process of Western economic thought.

(8) Department of History of China’s Economic Thought (Department of Development Economics): It studies the history of economic thought in China and carries out researches in the field of development economics.

The Institute of Economics currently administers 5 Academy-level research centers and 9 research societies and foundations, including:

(1) Research Centers: Contemporary Economic History Research Center of CASS, Underdeveloped Economy Research Center of CASS, UN Global Compact Research Center of CASS, Listed Company Research Center of CASS, Non-public Economy Research Center of CASS.

(2) Research Societies and Foundations: China’s Capital Research Society, China’s Socialist Economic Laws System Research Society, China’s Comparative Economics Research Society, China’s History of Economic Thought Society, China’s Economic History Society, China’s Urban Development Research Society, Sun Yefang Economic Science Foundation.

Ⅲ. Graduate Training

The Department of Economics of the Graduate School of CASS is under the Institute of economics. It offers 5 authorized PhD programs and Master programs of theoretical economics, including the fields of political economy, history of economic thought, economic history, Western economics and development economics, and 1 authorized Master program of applied economics in the field of national economics. The Department of Economics currently has 26 PhD supervisors and 20 Master supervisors.

Ⅳ. Library and Network Center

The library of the Institute of Economics has a total collection of more than 700,000 volumes of books, among which 540,000 are in Chinese (including 6,500 kinds, over 19,000 sets and more than 140,000 volumes of ancient books and local history archives (annals)), and 150,000 are in foreign language. The library also keeps 5,000 kinds of newspapers and periodicals in Chinese and foreign languages. Most of the publications are on economics, along with some others on related disciplines, such as philosophy, politics, law and history. Since 1995, it has become the central library for Academy-wide researches on economics.

The network center is mainly responsible for the maintenance, operation, management and security monitoring of the local area network covering the Institute of Economics, Institute of Industrial Economics and Institute of Finance and Trade Economics. It is also responsible for online information release by the Institute of Economics.

Ⅴ. Periodicals

The Institute of Economics now publishes three periodicals, including:

(1) Economic Research Journal (monthly publication). Current Editor-in-Chief: Pei Changhong. It was founded in 1955 and is publicly issued home and abroad. Basing itself on China’s realities and facing the frontier of international economics research, it is technical, up-to-date, innovative and forward-looking. Having these qualities, it is devoted to publishing high-level theoretical papers on various economic issues arising in the course of reform and opening-up, economic development and system transition, so as to foster the modernization of both China’s economy and economics studies.

(2) Economic Perspectives (monthly publication). Current Editor-in-Chief: Yang Chunxue. It was founded in 1960 and is publicly issued home and abroad. It actively reflects the development of domestic and foreign economics theory and economic thought, and attracts numerous readers by being technical, policy-based, forward-looking, practical, informative and comprehensive.

(3) China’s Economic History Research Journal (quarterly publication). Current Editor-in-Chief: Liu Lanxi. It was founded in 1986 and is publicly issued home and abroad. It accepts papers on the principles of new theory, new method, new material, and new issue, and has become a rather influential publication in the field of economic history.

Current Director of the Institute: Pei Changhong
Deputy Directors of the Institute: Zhu Ling, Zhang Ping, Liu Lanxi, Yang Chunxue
Address: No. 2, Yuetanbeixiaojie, Fuwai, Xicheng District, Beijing
Postcode: 100836
Tel: (8610)68030264 (8610)68034303
Fax: (8610)68032473
E-Mail: kyc-jjs@cass.org.cn
URL: http://ie.cass.cn/