Bai Chong-En, a distinguished professor of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Tsinghua University and dean of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University, was nominated as a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), October 26, 2026. The distinction recognizes economists with an outstanding international reputation. CEPR currently has 35 Distinguished Fellows, including several Nobel laureates in economics and chief economists of international organizations. Professor Bai is the only Chinese scholar among them. The nomination is effective from November 1 for a period of six years.

Founded in 1983, CEPR is one of the most influential networks of economists worldwide. Its mission is to enhance the quality of policy decisions through providing policy‐relevant research, based soundly in economic theory, to policymakers, the private sector and civil society. The results of the research conducted by the Centre's network of almost 2,000 affiliated researchers from over 330 institutions across 30 countries, who are based in their home institutions (universities, research institutes, central bank research departments, and international organizations), are disseminated through a variety of publications, public meetings, workshops and conferences, and through a set of active digital dissemination platforms.

Bai Chong-En also serves as Executive Dean of the Institute for Global Development at Tsinghua University. He holds a PhD degree in Mathematics from the University of California, San Diego, and a PhD degree in Economics from Harvard University. His research spans institutional economics, economic growth and development, public economics, finance, corporate governance and the Chinese economy.

Bai's research on China's economic growth and reform examines capital returns, productivity, income distribution and resource allocation, providing theoretical insights and empirical evidence on the country's growth and structural transformation. His research on capital returns and the productivity sources of China's economic slowdown received the 13th and 17th Sun Yefang Economic Science Awards for outstanding papers, respectively.

Bai is a member of the Scientific Council of the Barcelona School of Economics and serves on the editorial boards of Chinese academic journals including Economic Research Journal and Journal of Financial Research. He served on the Executive Committee of the International Economic Association from 2014 to 2021, on the editorial board of the Journal of Comparative Economics from 2004 to 2006, and on the editorial board of The World Bank Economic Review from 2006 to 2008 and from 2011 to 2013.

Bai's appointment as a CEPR Distinguished Fellow reflects the global influence of economic research at Tsinghua University. It also underscores the importance of sustained engagement by Chinese scholars in international academic dialogue and in advancing research exchange and policy cooperation in economics.

Editor: Ren Zhongxi