IESR was founded at Jinan University in December 2015 and operates under the leadership of internationally renowned scholars with Yangtze River Scholar Professor Shuaizhang Feng as the Dean and Professor James Heckman as the Chairman of the Advisory Board. We currently have 42 full-time faculty members in all major fields of economics. IESR is dedicated to the following goals:

• Developing China-based research programs in applied economics and other fields;

• Collecting original survey data related to China’s economic and social development;

• Building a leading Chinese think tank that could inform and influence national policymaking;

• Guiding our students to become future leaders in economic and social research;

• Facilitating academic exchanges between scholars in China and abroad.

IESR has established the following research centers:

• Research Center for Labor Economics

• Center for Econometrics and Microdata Practice

• Research Center for International Trade and Firms

• Research Center for Real Estate and Regional Economics

• Center for Ecological Civilization and Environmental Economics