Professor Pengfei Wang Receives NSFC Original Exploration Program Project Grant
2021-04-14 14:17:00
On March 19, 2021, the Management Science Department, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) held the Original Discovery Program review meeting in Beijing. After expert evaluation, four projects were finalized for funding. Project Complex Macroeconomic Theory and Methods Based on Heterogeneous Microeconomic Agents led by Professor Dr. Pengfei Wang, Vice Dean of Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School and Vice Dean of Peking University HSBC Business School, was awarded a grant of 3 million RMB.
Macroeconomic Research ought to guide policy making, and macroeconomists should devote themselves to solving urgent problems: Specific Macroeconomics theory adapted to the Chinese economic environment has not been developed. Therefore, based on the unique macroeconomic phenomenon of China, Professor Pengfei Wang’s project carries out an innovation on macroeconomic theory. The Chinese economy is characterized by the heterogeneity of microeconomic agents, the incompleteness of the market and endogenous government decisions. These three key features provide evidence and reliable references for the exploration of the creative theoretical analysis at which Prof. Wang’s project aim.
The theoretical part of the project aims to construct a complex macroeconomic system that fully reflects the characteristics of China’s economy, and at the same time develop a set of methods to reduce the dimension of endogenous heterogeneity. Therefore, the model can characterize the equilibrium and the dynamics of the economic system. This complex macroeconomic system consists of three core components: microeconomic agents, market, and the government, between which the dynamic interactions determine the mechanism of how the economy works. In particular, the endogenous optimal decision of the heterogeneous microeconomic agents including households, firms and financial institutions, form the basis of the complex system. Based on this, the market of commodity and factor connects different micro agents and determines the price and resource allocations. Finally, the institutions and policies under which micro agents make their decisions are determined endogenously by the government.
The empirical part of this project is to propose a quantitative method applicable to the study of complex macroeconomic systems by the micro distributional data and the macro time-series data to construct structural estimation and numerical simulation. Meanwhile, the project expects to develop a platform for quantitative analysis of economic policy and use it to evaluate and predict the impact of policies on the complex economic system.
In recent years, the dramatic changes in domestic and international economic environments and the vigorous growth of the Chinese economy raised an epic topic for Chinese researcher. Chinese economists are expected to make innovation in economic theories with scientific methodology and a global vision. As the project stresses out ‘With the Chinese economic growth entering a new era, we should not only fully absorb the scientific and general nature of global frontier theories, but also focus on real problems in China and try to solve the problems that the current theories have failed to solve’.
The NSFC established the Original Discovery Program in 2020 to promote original and fundamental research. The program provides grants for researchers that propose a new idea, and carry out exploratory and risky research, such as proposing new theories, developing new methods, and revealing new mechanisms. The program aims to cultivate leading achievements from scratch, sole scientific conundrum, lead research directions, open up new research fields, and promote the high-quality development of fundamental academic research in China. According to NSFC website, the project is the third project from Peking University to have received funding from the NSFC Original Discovery Program since its establishment in 2020.
Professor Dr. Wang is currently the Associate Dean of Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Professor of Economics at Peking University HSBC Business School, and Associate Dean of Peking University HSBC Business School. His main research areas are macroeconomics, financial economics, and monetary economics. Professor Wang has published dozens of papers in top international journals such as Econometrica, the American Economic Review, the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Economic Theory, the Journal of Monetary Economics, the Journal of Financial Economics, and the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics. He has made remarkable research achievements in the fields of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium theory, asset bubbles, financial crisis, and the interaction of multiple equilibria and endogenous economic fluctuations. He is an economist with international influence in the field of macroeconomics.
Macroeconomic Research ought to guide policy making, and macroeconomists should devote themselves to solving urgent problems: Specific Macroeconomics theory adapted to the Chinese economic environment has not been developed. Therefore, based on the unique macroeconomic phenomenon of China, Professor Pengfei Wang’s project carries out an innovation on macroeconomic theory. The Chinese economy is characterized by the heterogeneity of microeconomic agents, the incompleteness of the market and endogenous government decisions. These three key features provide evidence and reliable references for the exploration of the creative theoretical analysis at which Prof. Wang’s project aim.
The theoretical part of the project aims to construct a complex macroeconomic system that fully reflects the characteristics of China’s economy, and at the same time develop a set of methods to reduce the dimension of endogenous heterogeneity. Therefore, the model can characterize the equilibrium and the dynamics of the economic system. This complex macroeconomic system consists of three core components: microeconomic agents, market, and the government, between which the dynamic interactions determine the mechanism of how the economy works. In particular, the endogenous optimal decision of the heterogeneous microeconomic agents including households, firms and financial institutions, form the basis of the complex system. Based on this, the market of commodity and factor connects different micro agents and determines the price and resource allocations. Finally, the institutions and policies under which micro agents make their decisions are determined endogenously by the government.
The empirical part of this project is to propose a quantitative method applicable to the study of complex macroeconomic systems by the micro distributional data and the macro time-series data to construct structural estimation and numerical simulation. Meanwhile, the project expects to develop a platform for quantitative analysis of economic policy and use it to evaluate and predict the impact of policies on the complex economic system.
In recent years, the dramatic changes in domestic and international economic environments and the vigorous growth of the Chinese economy raised an epic topic for Chinese researcher. Chinese economists are expected to make innovation in economic theories with scientific methodology and a global vision. As the project stresses out ‘With the Chinese economic growth entering a new era, we should not only fully absorb the scientific and general nature of global frontier theories, but also focus on real problems in China and try to solve the problems that the current theories have failed to solve’.
The NSFC established the Original Discovery Program in 2020 to promote original and fundamental research. The program provides grants for researchers that propose a new idea, and carry out exploratory and risky research, such as proposing new theories, developing new methods, and revealing new mechanisms. The program aims to cultivate leading achievements from scratch, sole scientific conundrum, lead research directions, open up new research fields, and promote the high-quality development of fundamental academic research in China. According to NSFC website, the project is the third project from Peking University to have received funding from the NSFC Original Discovery Program since its establishment in 2020.
Professor Dr. Wang is currently the Associate Dean of Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Professor of Economics at Peking University HSBC Business School, and Associate Dean of Peking University HSBC Business School. His main research areas are macroeconomics, financial economics, and monetary economics. Professor Wang has published dozens of papers in top international journals such as Econometrica, the American Economic Review, the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Economic Theory, the Journal of Monetary Economics, the Journal of Financial Economics, and the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics. He has made remarkable research achievements in the fields of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium theory, asset bubbles, financial crisis, and the interaction of multiple equilibria and endogenous economic fluctuations. He is an economist with international influence in the field of macroeconomics.
Get involved with your College and see what events and opportunities are available.
For a full listing of University events open to the public, visit the What's On website.
Share this