Propped by 5 disciplines with the Ph.D. programs, i.e. Western Economics, History of Economic Thoughts, Political Economy, World Economy and Economics of Population, Resources and Environment, CEDR has broadened her areas of research and strengthened her teams of faculty. In the CEDR , there has formed a system which takes the theories of economic development as its focal point of research, and within which each discipline complements itself with another in research areas.

CEDR holds China's lead in the research on the theories of development economics. Professor Tan Chongtai , the founder and the Honorary Director of the CEDR , was the first scholar who introduced the westernized development economics into our country and has made a pioneering contribution to disseminating and studying this sub-discipline of western economics. He led a batch of the young-and-middle–aged scholars to have finished writing of the three books, Development Economics (1989), History of Western Thoughts on Economic Development (1993) and Advances in Development Economics (1999), which had exerted profound influences on Chinese academic circles and had established the lead in China in this area. Vice Director of the CEDR, Professor Jian Xinhua , and Professor Liu Chuanjiang, has researched on human migration and urbanization, and Vice Director of the CEDR , Professor Zhou Maorong, on the regional economic integration in developing countries. Their findings have evoked great repercussions and were given many academic awards at the national, provincial and ministerial levels.

Director of the CEDR , Professor Guo Xibao , who was chosen to be in the Plan of Fostering the Trans-Century Elites by the Ministry of Education, has made prominent achievements in the realms of development economics and the theory of agricultural development. He wrote the book On Agricultural Development (1995) and from the angle of development economics, he probed systematically into the problems of agricultural development in China and other developing economies. This book won the First-Rate Prize for the Excellent Research Achievements in Humanities and Social Sciences in National Institutions of Higher Education . Other young-and-middle-aged research fellows have also achieved great successes in their spheres, such as Professor Ma Ying in the history of western thoughts on economic development and the different approaches to development economics; Professor Zhang Bin in the regional organization and economic co-operations in developing countries; Professor Jiang Chun in the economics of institutional finance; Professor Zou Wei in the institutional innovation and economic development; Associate Professor Wen Jiandong in the growth and stability of financial markets in developing countries and Associate Professor Ye Chusheng in the formation of international capital in developing countries. In the CEDR, there has now formed a young-and–middle–aged team which takes the research on development economics as its focal point and has constituted a mix of research realms which manifests its comparative advantages.

CEDR has undertaken lots of key national and provincial research projects and has published a great deal of influential monographs and essays, which have produced widespread impacts on China's academic circles. Since 1996, CEDR has assumed 36 research projects, including 8 projects sponsored by the National Social Sciences Research Foundation as well as by the National Natural Sciences Research Foundation , 12 programs by the Ministry of Education , 12 items by the Social Sciences Research Foundation of Hubei Province and other funds, plus another 4 international joint research programs.

In recent 5 years, CEDR has published 50 academic monographs (48 volumes in Chinese and 2 volumes in English), and issued altogether more than 300 academic essays, of which 85 came out in such important journals in China as Chinese Social Sciences and Economic Research Journal , and more than 30 were carried in the international academic journals, such as Economic Journal, Journal of Monetary Economics, International Money and Finance , etc. Professor Zou Hengfu, who earned his Ph.D. in economics at Harvard University and who was honored the National Grant of the Young Elite , worked as a part-time research fellow of the CEDR . He founded and chief-edited an economics journal in English version, Annals of Economics and Finance , which is the very first journal in China with examination, revision, compilation according to the international practices and is issued abroad.

Up to now, CEDR has totally won 19 national, provincial and ministerial awards, among which, 1 National Prize for Excellent Academic Books , 1 Second-Rate Prize for the Outstanding Achievements of the National Social Sciences Foundation Research Projects , 2 First-Rate Prizes and 1 Second-Rate Prize for the Excellent Research Achievements in Humanities and Social Sciences in National Institutions of Higher Education , 1 First-Rate Prize for the Excellent Research Achievements in the Publishing Houses of National Institutions of Higher Education , 1 Prize of China Excellent Academic Books , 1 Prize of National Excellent Textbooks , plus 11 First-Rate , Second-Rate , and Third-Rate Prizes for the Excellent Research Achievements in Humanities and Social Sciences of Hubei Province .

The present research areas of the CEDR are as follows: the basic theories of western development economics; Marxist and Deng Xiaoping's theories on development; problems concerning migration, industrialization and urbanization; institutions and economic development; countryside and rural development; the roads of development taken by the newly industrializing economies, etc. The projects in progress with the CEDR are: new theories of economic growth; theories and performances of the late-developing countries which try to catch-up; a comparative analysis of the early industrialization in the developed countries with that in the current developing countries; endogenous innovation in firms and international competitiveness; new advances and resurgence in development economics; protection of the intellectual property rights and economic growth; rural-to-city migration and social stability; programming for the small towns and sustainable development; the influences of FDI on China's economic development, etc.

CEDR sees a steady stream of active academic exchanges. It has built up far-reaching and close relations with Harvard University, University of Chicago and many other leading universities in Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Japan. All of the research fellows, including full-time or part-time, have their experiences in studying, researching, giving lectures, visiting and participating in academic conferences abroad.

The goals of the CEDR are as follows: Keep a nation-wide lead in the field of research on development economics and try to make the CEDR , to some extent, internationally known, so as to build up the CEDR with its own characteristics into China's first-rate one of the key research bases for humanities and social sciences, a teaching and training base as well as a center for academic exchanges.

Honorary Professor

Dwight Heald Perkins is a Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy as well as a Frank W. Taussig Professor of Economics at Harvard University, and concurrently an Honorary Professor of the CEDR . He earned his Ph.D. degree in economics in 1956 at Harvard University.

Professor Perkins has a worldwide reputation for his academic contributions to the theory of development economics and to development policy for developing countries. From 1980 to 1995, he was the Director of Harvard Institute for International Development ( HIID ), which is Harvard's multidisciplinary institute for research, teaching and technical assistance on development policy to developing countries. Under his leadership, HIID has successfully grown into a world-famous institute with a faculty of over 100 full-time development professionals plus another 100 administrative staff working with governments and institutes in 19 developing countries.

During his 40 academic years, Professor Dwight H. Perkins has published more than 120 academic articles and several tens of books. He has been awarded important fellowships, medals and prizes of many kinds and has been conferred as honorary titles or assumed as chairmen in various professional associations or councils in U.S.A. or in the world.