Editor’s Note
On November 8, 2025, the first batch of volumes in 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 distinctive interdisciplinary disciplines, Population, Resources and Environmental Economics emerged at the turn of the century. Its core mission has always been to respond to the epochal proposition of coordinated development among population, resources and environment in China. Over more than two decades, starting from the establishment of an independent academic program, the discipline has gradually built a complete talent training system covering undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels, and assembled a faculty team with both global vision and local practical experience. The disciplinary team has maintained in-depth engagement in research innovation, social services and international exchanges, producing a series of influential outcomes. It provides solid academic support for national ecological civilization construction and the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, and answers the calls of the times along green developmental pathways.
PART 01
The Origin of the Discipline: An Interdisciplinary Exploration Born for the Times
At the end of the 20th century, rapid economic growth in China was accompanied by mounting pressure on resources and the environment, alongside prominent population challenges. Traditional economics could not fully address these intertwined cross-cutting issues, and society urgently needed a new comprehensive discipline to systematically investigate the interrelationships among population, resources, the environment and the economy. Against this backdrop, Population, Resources and Environmental Economics took shape as an interdisciplinary field.
In 2000, the Ministry of Education and the Academic Degrees Office of the State Council formally approved the School of Economics at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics to launch master’s and doctoral programs in Population, Resources and Environmental Economics. This marked the official establishment of an independent disciplinary site for this field at SUFE. It is not only a direct response to practical demands and academic explorations within this field, but also a major breakthrough for academia in interdisciplinary integration and systematic research.
PART 02
Disciplinary Foundation: Team Building and Talent Cultivation
The launch of the independent disciplinary site ushered in a brand-new chapter for the construction of Population, Resources and Environmental Economics at SUFE. From its inception, the discipline has identified interdisciplinarity and practicality as its core features, oriented toward solving China’s indigenous problems. It has gradually built a faculty team equipped with insights into national conditions and international perspectives. By 2025, the team comprises 11 full-time teaching and research staff, including 2 professors, 5 associate professors and 4 lecturers, forming an age-balanced academic echelon dominated by young and middle-aged scholars. Among them, Tenured Professor Lin Liguo devotes himself to sustainable development and environmental economics, with more than ten papers published in leading domestic and international journals such as American Economic Review and Journal of Public Economics. Professor Cao Jianhua focuses on resource and energy economics, presiding over five national-level research projects and publishing over one hundred papers. Young scholars including Liu Jianghua, Wang Jing, Fan Meiting, Wu Chenyu, Sun Wei, Zhou Ling, Zhang Yu, Huang Naixin and Shu Yunyu excel respectively in environmental economics, energy policy, green finance and other relevant fields.
In talent cultivation, the teaching and research team for Population, Resources and Environmental Economics has constructed a tiered curriculum system tailored to individual aptitudes, forming an integrated training pipeline spanning undergraduate, master’s and doctoral studies. Catering to the developmental needs of students at different academic stages, the team offers four core courses to achieve precise alignment between foundational knowledge acquisition and advanced research training. For undergraduates, courses including Resource and Environmental Economics and Climate Change Economics are offered to help students establish a holistic disciplinary framework and spark academic interest. For master’s and doctoral students, Population, Resources and Environmental Economics I and Population, Resources and Environmental Economics II consolidate their theoretical and modeling foundations, keep them updated on international research frontiers, and nurture their capacity for independent research.
Beyond classroom instruction, the disciplinary team strives to foster an open, cutting-edge academic atmosphere. High-level academic lectures and thematic seminars are held regularly, inviting renowned scholars at home and abroad to share their latest findings and bring students face-to-face with research frontiers. Doctoral student semester research workshops are also organized on a regular basis to strengthen faculty-student communication and facilitate joint progress. By 2024, the team has supervised a total of 15 doctoral students and 1 postdoctoral researcher. Co-authored papers by doctoral students and faculty have appeared in authoritative domestic and international journals such as Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, China Economic Review, Journal of Finance and Economics and Economic Perspectives, demonstrating remarkable achievements in cultivating innovative talent.
PART 03
Deepened Disciplinary Research: Scholarly Innovation and International Exchange
Over the past two decades, the disciplinary team adheres to the principle of “building the discipline through research and serving society”. Grounded in advanced theories, it focuses on major real-world issues and advances both research innovation and social services. In terms of research outputs, team members have published numerous articles in top domestic and international journals including American Economic Review, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Nature Sustainability and Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. The team has presided over nearly ten General and Youth Programs of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, multiple research projects commissioned by the Ministry of Finance, as well as research innovation projects sponsored by the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, general projects under the Shanghai Philosophy and Social Sciences Planning Program, and special research projects for Shanghai government decision-making consulting studios. For social engagement, drawing support from the university’s Institute of Carbon Neutrality Finance, the team actively provides policy recommendations, conducts in-depth research on China’s environmental policies, and contributes to ecological civilization development.
For international exchange, the disciplinary team upholds an international vision, builds platforms for global academic dialogue, and continuously elevates its international influence. In recent years, it has hosted more than ten high-level seminars, attracting over 150 expert visits from home and abroad and more than 500 participants in aggregate. Multiple academic forums have also been organized to invite scholars worldwide to share frontier research. These seminars and forums serve as vital exchange platforms for team members, effectively promoting international research collaboration and the collision of frontier ideas, and lifting the global profile of the discipline.
PART 04
Disciplinary Outlook: Green Leadership toward World-Class Excellence
From the launch of the independent disciplinary site in 2000 to the formation of an internationalized, youthful and high-caliber faculty team today; from the initial construction of curricula to the maturing integrated undergraduate-master-doctor training model; from domestic academic beginnings to frequent appearances on global academic stages — for more than twenty years, SUFE’s Population, Resources and Environmental Economics discipline has consistently taken responding to the questions of the times as its mission, oriented toward serving national strategies, and blazed an interdisciplinary development path with distinctive SUFE characteristics.
Looking ahead, the disciplinary team will continue to uphold the university motto Strive for Virtue and Knowledge, Assist in Economy and Governance, retain its core features of interdisciplinarity and practicality, and center its mission on supporting national ecological civilization construction and the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. It will forge ahead toward building a world-class discipline with Chinese characteristics, and contribute SUFE’s solutions to building a beautiful China and advancing sustainable development.
