Editor’s Note
On November 8, 2025, the first batch of books from SUFE’s Discipline History series was released. The developmental journey of the School of Economics embodies the dedication and academic inheritance of generations of economists. A Discipline History of the School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics systematically traces the school’s academic lineage and vividly records the evolutionary logic of economics in China. While carrying forward academic traditions, it also nurtures immense potential for future innovation. Against this backdrop, the School of Economics launches the column Jinghong · Academic Heritage. The column will sequentially introduce the development trajectories and features of each discipline within the school. Through these focused vignettes, we gather momentum from the past, stimulate innovative thinking by sustaining academic legacies, and contribute SUFE’s insights to building an independent knowledge system for Chinese economics.
As one of SUFE’s traditional flagship disciplines, labor economics emerged in the early years of reform and opening-up. Over more than four decades of steady development, it has centered its research on responding to transformations in China’s labor market, integrating theoretical inquiry with practical demands. It has built a complete talent cultivation system covering undergraduate, master’s and doctoral programs, alongside a research paradigm grounded in national realities and aligned with international standards. The discipline’s development falls into two major stages: initial founding (1982–2003) and expansion and advancement (2004–present). It has gradually grown from course development into an independent specialization, shifting from introducing foreign theories to producing frontier innovations. In China’s fourth round of Discipline Assessment, SUFE’s labor economics was rated A, continuously supplying intellectual support for national labor market policy design and economic and social transition.
Part 1
Initial Establishment of the Discipline (1982–2003)
Disciplinary construction got off to a promising start. SUFE was among China’s earliest universities to launch labor economics programs after reform and opening-up. Championed by renowned labor economist Professor Ge Shouchang, the university rolled out labor economics courses under the political economics program in 1982, marking the embryonic form of the discipline. As construction advanced, SUFE formally founded the Labor Economics Teaching and Research Section in January 1985, with Professor Ge Shouchang serving as its director. The section assembled a cohort of distinguished scholars including Chen Weimin, Wang Longxi, Chen Zhiwei, Hu Zhenghua, Gu Ling’er, Shen Zhiyi and Tian Liying, forming an initial academic team. At the discipline’s early stage, labor economic theories in China largely drew mechanically on Soviet frameworks, which failed to meet the needs of reform and opening-up, especially the transition toward a socialist market economy. Against this backdrop, scholars of SUFE’s labor economics team emancipated their minds and pursued bold innovations, carrying out foundational work in teaching reform and disciplinary development. Between 1983 and 1996, the Teaching and Research Section compiled textbooks including Social Insurance and Welfare, Labor Economics, and Social Security Economics. Among them, Social Security Economics was designated as a trial textbook for finance and economics universities under the key planning of the Ministry of Finance and played an instrumental role in the discipline’s growth.
A full talent training system took shape. Following the establishment of the teaching section, faculty members jointly refined and upgraded the disciplinary framework. A specialized labor economics track was launched in 1988; master’s students were first admitted to the labor economics research stream under political economics in 1989; labor economics became an independent master’s program in 1998; the undergraduate program in Labor and Social Security was officially approved by the Ministry of Education in 1999. After a university-wide disciplinary restructuring after 2002, social security and human resource management were transferred out of the School of Economics, and the school resumed undergraduate admissions for labor economics. The discipline began recruiting doctoral students in 2006. By then, a complete undergraduate‑master‑doctor training system for labor economics had been put in place.
The discipline served society with distinctive strengths. To accommodate economic reforms, the Labor Economics Teaching and Research Section also undertook professional training programs commissioned by Shanghai municipal government departments. Starting in September 1983, entrusted by the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Labor, the section ran three junior college classes and four certificate programs in labor economics, with more than 300 participants. Most trainees were section-level officials in labor wage administration from Shanghai government agencies, enterprises and public institutions. After returning to their posts, many became core business specialists, and some were promoted to directors of labor and wage divisions under municipal bureaus, directors of district labor bureaus, and deputy directors of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Labor. Entrusted by the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions, the section also delivered five training courses for labor cadres within the trade union system, attended by over 150 participants.
Part 2
Rapid Development of the Discipline (2004–Present)
The discipline has flourished over the past two decades. Dramatic shifts in China’s demographic structure and the rise of new technologies have created urgent demand for advances in labor economics. Rooted in Shanghai, grounded in China and oriented toward the globe, SUFE boasts abundant teaching resources and a mature research team, securing first-mover advantages for labor economics. The team has organized diversified, multi-layered academic exchange activities and built China’s first large-scale longitudinal database on migrant children. Faculty members have won numerous awards for teaching reform, research and innovation projects, and occupy a pivotal position in cultivating China’s labor economics talents and designing labor market policies.
In December 2012, a co-authored paper by Professor Feng Shuaizhang (now Dean of the Institute of Economic and Social Research, Jinan University), Misclassification Errors and the Underestimation of the U.S. Unemployment Rate, was accepted for publication by the American Economic Review, the most influential and prestigious theoretical economics journal in the United States and one of the world’s top economics journals.
In January 2020, a co-authored paper by Professor Chen Yuanyuan, Sensitivity of Self-Reported Non-Cognitive Skills to Survey Administration Conditions, was formally published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). PNAS ranks among the most cited comprehensive authoritative journals, placing third in SCI multidisciplinary science rankings. It is an indispensable research resource for scholars worldwide with far-reaching academic impact.
On December 15, 2023, the National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences released the approved list of major projects under the National Social Science Fund of China for 2023. The team led by Professor Chen Yuanyuan secured funding for the major project titled Research on the Logic, Models and Laws of Coordinated Development between Population and the Economy.
Disciplinary planning has grown increasingly sophisticated. The 14th Five-Year Development Plan of SUFE’s School of Economics states that as an important component of modern economics at the school, labor economics is rooted in China and adopts international micro and macro analytical frameworks of modern economics to study Chinese issues. It prioritizes breakthroughs on hot-button and difficult research topics, innovates theoretical frameworks for China’s transitional development, provides theoretical interpretation and elevation for practical experience, and delivers theoretical guidance and reconstruction for resolving contradictions. Building theories of China’s transitional development carries great significance, covering research on market mechanism design and frontier studies of population mobility and labor market theory. Faculty development, talent training, textbook and curriculum construction are all incorporated into the plan as integral parts of modern economics.
Innovative talent training models have been developed. At the undergraduate level, curriculum reform has been advanced to form a “trinity” curriculum system. Drawing on international experience in nurturing innovative academic economics talents and adapting to China’s national conditions, the program restructures economics curricula across three dimensions: economic theory, historical literacy and quantitative analysis. It strengthens students’ capacity for independent knowledge renewal, equipping them with solid Marxist economic theories and historical awareness, mastery of modern economic theories, robust mathematical foundations, and proficient skills in quantitative economic data analysis, laying a sound groundwork for high-level academic innovation. At the postgraduate level, the doctoral program in labor economics aims to cultivate world-class economics researchers. Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, doctoral students receive systematic training in core and specialized modern economics courses to build independent and innovative academic capabilities together with competence for international academic dialogue. The program produces high-caliber researchers for universities, research institutes, government agencies and enterprises at home and abroad.
Curriculum reform has been deepened. The Labor Economics course is a Shanghai Municipal Quality Course and also a Shanghai Municipal Demonstration Course taught entirely in English. The faculty team has won first prizes and a special prize in Shanghai Municipal Teaching Achievement Awards, as well as national teaching achievement awards. The project Training Model for Outstanding Academic Economics Talents Based on the Innovation Platform for Advantage Disciplines won the Shanghai First-Class Teaching Achievement Award in 2013. Exploration and Practice of Cultivating Innovative Economics Talents Integrating Internationalization and Localization claimed the Shanghai First-Class Teaching Achievement Award in 2017. A Decade of Reform and Practice in Cultivating Outstanding Innovative Academic Economics Talents received the National Second-Class Postgraduate Teaching Achievement Award in 2016, and the same project Exploration and Practice of Cultivating Innovative Economics Talents Integrating Internationalization and Localization won the National Second-Class Teaching Achievement Award in 2018.
Upholding SUFE’s motto Strive for Virtue and Knowledge, Assist in Economy and Governance, the Labor Economics discipline will forge ahead on its journey toward building a world-class discipline with Chinese characteristics, writing a more magnificent new chapter for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
