The Institute for Economic and Social Research (IESR) was founded at JinanUniversity in December 2015. Since then, IESR has been leading in economics education, research, public service, and international cooperation. Operating under the leadership of internationally renowned scholars, including Professor Shuaizhang Feng as Dean and Professor James Heckman as Chair of the Advisory Board, IESR currently has 33 full-time faculty members, many of whom are graduates of renowned institutions such as the University of Chicago, London School of Economics and Political Science, Northwestern University, and University of California, Berkeley. Research at IESR spans all major fields of economics, and undergraduate and graduate students receive rigorous training in economics. The Institute runs a Survey DataCenter for data collection and management and a Policy Research Center for policy analysis and evaluation.
8 Centers
Center for Labor Economics
Center for International Trade and Firms
Center for Real Estate and Regional Economics
Center for Ecological Civilization and Environmental Economics
Center for Econometrics and Microdata Practice
Survey Data Center
Center for Policy Research
Center for Development and Exchange
33 Full-time faculty members
236 Research papers published (or accepted)
99 Research grants received
600+ Academic events
130 Undergraduate students
55 Graduate students
20 Master's programs in Economics and Finance launched with 9 overseas universities
The mission of the Institute is to advance policy-oriented economic and social research by addressing pressing social and economic issues in China. Specifically, IESR aims to achieve the following objectives:
-Develop China-based research programs in applied economics and other fields.
-Collect original survey data related to China’s economic and social development.
-Build a leading Chinese think tank to inform and influence national policymaking.
-Guide IESR students to become future leaders in economic and social research.
-Facilitate academic exchanges between scholars in China and abroad.
(March 2026 updated)
