The day I went to Lin Yifu at the beginning of last year, it happened that the first heavy snow fell in Beijing after winter. This road is very difficult to walk and the weather is very cold. I inquired all the way to his office and entered the door. I was about to take off my coat when I heard him say, "You don't have to take it off, it's cold here." I looked up and saw that man, about 1.8 meters tall, with his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket, his eyes shining and his smile humorous and easy-going. I was a little surprised and thought: This man in Taiwan Province Province is really different from many people I have seen before.
Lin Yifu's name was heard in August this year. The annual Sun Prize in Economics, the highest prize in domestic economics, was announced, and the jury held a small press conference in Beijing Hotel. From the mouth of the professor who presided over the conference, I know that the winner of this year's Sun Works Award is 4 1 year-old, 14 years ago and 6 years ago from the United States, and he is a doctor of economics. Professor Wu Jinglian is also the winner of this year's Sun Yefang Award. He made a short speech at the press conference, but he didn't mention much about his book The Road to Market Economy, but he was excited to mention the young people who won the prize, including Lin Yifu who used modern theoretical tools to conduct economic research and his book The System, Technology and Agricultural Development in China. At that time, when I heard Professor Wu's praise and saw his unique experience, my heart was moved. ...
This interview comes from a topic, which was agreed in advance. Let Lin Yifu talk about his views on the decision of the Third Plenary Session of the 14th CPC Central Committee. In order to speak naturally and out of professional curiosity, I certainly asked Shaw some "off-topic" words. I asked him, Taiwan Province Province and the United States have good conditions for academic research. Why did they come back to the mainland?
He said that the mainland is so big that it is interesting to study the economy here. He also said that western economics is based on a perfect market economy, and the theory of reform and development is very weak, but in China, there is an opportunity to study this issue clearly and make contributions to the development of mainstream economics.
Talking about these ideas, he was eloquent and excited. He said that reform and development will always be the concern of human society. It is on these issues that China economists are at the golden opportunity to step onto the world economic stage ... But when I turned to ask him how he came back from Taiwan Province Province and asked about his personal story, his answer became very obscure and short. His eyes were still bright, but he smiled humorously and mysteriously and said, Let's talk about the present and theory. ...
This Lin Yifu!
From 65438 to 0979, an American won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his theory of "human capital". He is Schultz, an economics professor at the University of Chicago.
Two years later, Schultz came to China to give lectures and went to Peking University. The school sent an interpreter for Professor Schultz, a young man who knows both economic theory and English. Schultz's lecture was very successful, and the understanding on stage and off stage should be satisfactory. Schultz felt the skills and talents of young people. Schultz returned to the United States and wrote to the young translator, asking him to study for a doctorate at the University of Chicago after obtaining a master's degree in economics. It seemed like a dream, so fate made special arrangements for Lin Yifu: the United States sent a special person to invigilate in Beijing alone, so that Lin Yifu could make up the TOEFL. Then, he got the admission notice from the University of Chicago.
It must be at the age of 30 that he came to the atmosphere of "Chicago School", and Lin Yifu finally made up his mind to embark on the road of economic theory exploration. The ideal begins to focus from this time. At the age of 40, when he faced China reporters as an outstanding economist, he gave the impression that he was rational and calm, and his ideals and passions-the driving force that prompted him to return from the sea more than ten years ago-have become buried in his heart.
Lin Yifu completed his doctorate in four years, which is the fastest in the School of Economics of the University of Chicago. In the year of graduation, he gave a speech at a conference on development economics in Arizona. His unique views on the changes of China's agricultural system attracted the appreciation of American economists attending the conference. Since then, Lin Yifu has successively received letters of appointment from five American universities and universities in other countries, four of which expressed their willingness to provide him with lifelong positions; The World Bank also intends to hire him. ...
At that time, the Thirteenth National Congress of China had not yet been held, and international students were both concerned and anxious about whether the reform could continue. His friends advised him to wait until the situation became clearer before deciding to stay. However, Lin Yifu quickly made a decision to return to China. On June 9, Lin Yifu's family boarded a plane from Washington to Beijing.
This is Lin Yifu's second return. The first time was 1979. When the two sides of the Taiwan Strait regarded each other as enemies, Yifu left his 3-year-old son and pregnant wife and tried his best to go back to work in the mainland. He left a message for his wife and children: If I can't witness the reunification and rejuvenation of the motherland, may my son and daughter inherit his father's footsteps.
"When I was young, I often looked forward to working in my motherland. In order to keep this wish in mind, I named my son and daughter after the red sun in the east-Xuchu and Sunrise. However, five years of living in the United States made He Lian forget Minnan dialect. Returning to China is not only to participate in the reform, but also to let the next generation stand up and be a proud China person. " Later, in an article, Shaw spoke his mind like this.
Since then, I have been very familiar with Shaw and his beautiful and clever wife Yunying. I had a long talk with them in his spacious and cool living room. I gradually understood why Shaw didn't want to talk more about his early years, and I was determined to respect his wishes, not to ask questions or write too much.
However, despite the legendary past, I still have a lot of "why" for him. Once, in front of Yunying, I asked Shaw directly: Do you want to win the Nobel Prize?
In fact, there have been rumors in the domestic economic circles that Lin Yifu's research in recent years is directed at the Nobel Prize.
After returning to China for 8 years, Lin Yifu has made great achievements in the field of economic research with unremitting efforts and hard work. In recent years, he has published 22 papers in Chinese academic journals, 14 papers in English academic journals, 40 papers in international lectures and 18 papers in English academic journals. It should be noted that famous foreign economic magazines generally adopt anonymous evaluation, regardless of the remuneration, and the number of published papers is usually the main index to measure an economist's achievements internationally. Lin Yifu publishes an average of three papers a year, more than some influential economists abroad.
In fact, Lin Yifu's research on institutional change and technological change has outstanding theoretical innovation, and his research results have been published in famous foreign economic magazines and widely cited, which indicates that his research has entered the international leading level.
1992, the most authoritative economic academic journal in the United States, American Economic Review, published Lin Yifu's paper. This is the first time that this magazine has published articles by mainland economists for many years. Soon after, another authoritative American publication, Research on Political Economy, published a discussion album for a paper by Lin Yifu. This is the first time for mainland economists.