(Correspondence: Zhang Wei) On the afternoon of October 15, Prof. XU Zheng-guo from the Department of Political Science of Soochow University in Taiwan and Prof. Tang Jie from the School of Economics and Management of Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen Campus) gave a talk entitled The Development and Contribution of China’s First Economic Academic Research Groupin NKIE (Nankai Institute of Economics) Bi-weekly Academic Seminar.

Prof. Xu Zheng-guo first briefly described the grow-up background of He Lian and Fang Xian-ting and their learning experiences at the Yale Economic Research Institute. Then he reviewed the history that He Lian, with the support of President Zhang Bo-lin, created the Nankai School of Economics, as well as the teaching guidelines of the Nankai School and the progress of related research after the founding of the Institute. Nankai School of Economics adheres to the tenet of Knowing China and Serving China with features of complement of teaching and research, Chinese style teaching of economicsand compatibility of economic theory, economic history and statistics.

In terms of scientific research, Nankai School of Economics 1) compiled the Wholesale Index of North China Commodity, which was later merged into the “Nankai Index”; 2) organized two large-scale studies related to the industrialization in North China and the immigration of Northeast; 3) researched North China's agricultural economy with special attention to institutional issues such as land ownership, agricultural credit and market.

Prof. Tang Jie has the dual experience of economic theory research and practical exploration. Taking Shenzhen as an example, he expounds the relation between government, enterprises, market competition, innovation and entrepreneurship, and the concept of non-consensus innovation. Prof. Tang pointed out that Shenzhen, as an immigrant city, broke the original social stratification and created a platform for communication conducive to innovation and entrepreneurship. On the other hand, Shenzhen’s incentive mechanism also produces innovation and demonstration effect. Taking the drone industry as an example, he introduced some successful experience of Shenzhen.