Professor Shi Li graduated from the department of economics, Nanjing University in 1982; In 1984, he obtained his master's degree from School of Economics, Peking University. From 1985 to 2005, he worked in the Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Since August 2005, he has been a professor and doctoral supervisor in the Business School, Beijing Normal University. He had founded the China Institute for Income Distribution, the Center for Policy Simulation, the China Center for the Economics of Human Development and other high-end think tanks, which supported the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the theory of income distribution, and provided important theoretical basis and intellectual support for the major national decision-making strategies. The main research fields include development economics and labor economics, among which income distribution, public policy, poverty and labor market are the research emphases in recent years.

Over the past 30 years, he has devoted himself to the research of income distribution and achieved fruitful academic results. He has won the eighth 'China Economic Theory Innovation Award' (the highest award of China's theoretical economics) and the Sun Yefang Economics Award (1994, 2010 and 2017) for three times. He has been honored as 'Mr. Chinese income distribution' by the international academia. Li Shi and his team attached great importance to serving the society with academic achievements, and the policy consultation report has been approved by national leaders for many times. Li Shi is also a member of the leading group of poverty alleviation and development experts advisory committee of the State Council and the expert advisory committee of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.