What’s the solving problem of Public Finance? What’s its academic mission? Its disciplinary attribute? Economics, Politics, or others? The problem of academic mission and disciplinary attribute is the basic theoretical issue in the development of Public Finance. To clarify this problem not only related to the development direction of Public Finance, like the theme, the area, and the approach in Public Finance theoretical research and the content and method in Public Finance talent training, but also the position and function of Public Finance theoretical research in modern government system and administrative modernization.
On the afternoon of April 11, 2017, all the teachers and some graduate students in Public Finance and Taxation got together and discussed on the issue of the academic mission and its realization of Public Finance.
The meeting was host by SUFE Curator and Taxation Department Dean Professor Zhu Weiqun.
In the discussion, Professor Jiang Hong made systematic demonstration on the four basic theories and the research status in Public Finance research. He said that, the research emphasis of Public Finance should be the selection and constraint of public behavior, instead of the impact of government on individual behavior.
SPEA Dean Professor Liu Xiaobing started from the research status of Public Finance, and re-considerated the issue that Public Finance belongs to Economics. In his opinion, Public Finance does not belong to Economics, and it should be a discipline between Economics and Politics.
Associate Professor Liu Shougang shared his opinion on the research theme and paradigm of Fiscal Politics. He said that, it was limited to study Public Finance only from Economics, and it’s necessary to considerate it from Politics.
Associate Professor Zeng Junping shared his opinion on the academic mission and its realization of Public Finance. He said that, the academic mission of Public Finance is to construct a Public Finance System to realize the fairness and efficiency, and Public Finance research should conduct with a focus on the construction of the rules of fairness.
After the four speeches, SUFE President Professor Fann Liming made a systematical summary on the development ideas of Public Finance. She emphasized that, Public Finance research should take into consideration of the history, associate with national conditions of the state system and system of government, and should not just copy western theories because of the system differences between China and western countries. Besides, Professor Liu Xiaochuan, Professor Fan Ziying, Professor Deng Shulian, Zhang Muyang, Wu Yiping and several teachers also shared opinions in the discussion.
