June 8, 2012
By Tang Xiangyang

In early June, Research Papers in Economics (RePEc), a website that collects economics working papers and journal articles and published them its online IDEAS database, published an updated list of it\'s "top" economists for May 2012.

The way RePEc arrive at their mysterious rankings seems a little too complicated for us to understand, but the fact that a relatively unknown academic from the Central University of Finance and Economics was the highest ranking economist from mainland China, seems to have caused a bit of a stink within the economic profession in China.

Things weren't helped when Heng-Fu Zou (邹恒甫), who earned his doctorate degree in economics from Harvard in 1989, fronted domestic media and had a bit of a go at some more of his more well-known colleagues in the economics profession, such as Zhang Weiying (张维迎) and Lang Xianping (郎咸平), whom he noted had not done any academic research in over a decade.

Mr. Zou, who also holds position at Peking University, Wuhan University and a host of other official appointments, also took a swipe at economists who on the one hand criticize monopolies but at the same time are willing to serve as independent directors on the boards of various state-owned companies.

Over the past couple of days, the Guangzhou Daily, Nanfang Daily and Legal Daily have all published commentaries in relation to Zou's criticism of his fellow economists. Below we offer a brief digest of these op-eds.

Why Don't Economists Fight Back? - Guangzhou Daily

This isn't the first time that people have attacked the quality of Chinese economists, Professor Zou's comments echo those of Ding Xueliang (丁学良), a professor with the Hong Kong Science and Technology University, who in 2005 claimed that you could count the number of real economists in mainland China on one hand.

However, what's interesting is that these economists never fight back.

In the past, some have claimed that economics in itself is "morally neutral" and that economists do not discuss issues of morality.

Maybe this amorality explains why economists are likely to come out and speak on behalf of certain interest groups and even pretend that their arguments are being made in the national interest, indeed that is when we should be most alert to the likelihood that we are being hoodwinked.

If it really is true that as Prof. Zou says "there are a few economists who are making a buck by misleading the country and its people," then we need to be on our guard against this as it has the potential to do great harm to our nation.

We hope that mainland economists may one day be confident enough to step up and refute these accusations and argue in defense of the quality of most Chinese economists.

Doesn't He Have a Point? - Nanfang Daily

Zou Hengpu is not as famous as some of the economists he has "attacked", but his words do communicate some truth.

There are two kinds of economists in China. One stays in universities and research centers and rarely appears in the media or public sphere. This kind of economists still makes valuable contributions to academic research.

The other is the so-called superstar economists who spend most of their time in protecting and improving their public image, speaking for the rich and powerful instead of the general public and the less privileged. Since the former is always silent, the public and government can be more easily misled by the latter.

A healthy intellectual climate should include many voices from different perspectives. But that's often what is missing in today's China. We wish that one day people like Zou Hengpu won't be viewed as representing some crazy fringe.

Separate Economists from Business - Legal Daily

Economists should be experts in economic affairs, but that doesn't mean they should also serve as independent directors on company boards or get paid huge amounts to give lectures.

For every economist, independence is a must. But how can we expect them to be independent if they have financial links with state-owned companies or profitable organizations?