On April 25, 2026, the 7th Frontier Forum of Labor Economics took place at Beijing Normal University Business School (BNUBS). With the theme Reshaping Labor Value amid Digital and Intelligent Transformation: Human Development and Employment Transition, the forum gathered experts, scholars, paper authors, teachers and students from domestic universities and research institutions. Participants conducted in-depth discussions on cutting-edge topics including education and human capital investment, labor market transformation, and high-quality and full employment in the digital era.

 

Group Photo of the Forum

Professor Xu Minbo, Director of the Department of Economics at BNUBS, presided over the opening ceremony and the first session of keynote speeches.

 

Opening Remarks by Professor Sun Zhijun

Professor Sun Zhijun, Party Secretary of BNUBS, delivered an opening speech on behalf of the organizer. He extended a warm welcome and sincere gratitude to all guests and participants. He noted that while the community of labor economics researchers in China keeps expanding, the discipline faces multiple challenges brought by technological changes and policy adjustments. Labor economics should pay closer attention to major issues concerning national economic and social development, establish new theoretical frameworks to interpret the impacts of artificial intelligence on the labor market, and further optimize research methods to better explain real-world phenomena. He stated that challenges come hand in hand with opportunities. He expressed the hope to work with peers across the country to advance the high-quality development of labor economics, build the forum into a high-level academic community leading disciplinary frontiers, and contribute more to the construction of an independent knowledge system for labor economics in China.

 

Keynote Speech by Professor Lai Desheng

Professor Lai Desheng from the Party School of the Central Committee of C.P.C. (National Academy of Administration) presented a speech titled Employment Structure Transition and Human Capital Upgrading. He pointed out that human capital is the key to coping with changes in employment structure. According to the framework of "the race between education and technology", lagging educational development behind technological progress will widen income inequality. Driven by technologies represented by artificial intelligence, the labor market is undergoing profound changes, and future employment structures will feature advancement, polarization and diversification, leading to more prominent structural employment contradictions. To address these issues, he stressed the importance of accelerating human capital upgrading. First, raise the overall level of human capital by extending the years of schooling for new workforce members and strengthening vocational skill training for existing workers. Second, optimize the education structure by expanding enrollment in science, engineering, agriculture and medicine majors, adjusting discipline layout and fiscal funding mechanisms, and better aligning talent cultivation with market demands. Third, improve talent training quality by integrating humanities, science and education, promoting learning-by-doing models, and taking reading as an important approach to human capital accumulation. He emphasized that against the backdrop of the AI era, a modern human capital system should be established to underpin employment restructuring, high-quality full employment and the building of a country strong in human resources.

 

Keynote Speech by Wang Chunchao

Professor Wang Chunchao from South China Normal University shared a report entitled How Generative AI Reshapes Tasks and Employment. His research shows that AI has significantly lowered skill requirements and narrowed the productivity gap between workers with different educational backgrounds. He suggested improving the social security and retraining systems, prioritizing the cultivation of creativity, judgment and non-cognitive abilities, and encouraging collaboration between governments and enterprises to resolve structural problems in the labor market.

 

Keynote Speech by Qin Xuezheng

Professor Qin Xuezheng from Peking University delivered a speech titled Number One Girl: Top Score Gender and Peer Academic Performance. Using data from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) and the regression discontinuity design, he explored how the gender of the top-ranked student in a class influences peers' academic performance.The research finds that female top students exert a notable positive impact on the academic performance and rankings of female classmates, while no significant effect is observed on male students. Mechanism analysis reveals that this peer effect works mainly by boosting female students' academic confidence and learning engagement, as well as raising parents' educational expectations and family support for daughters, rather than through teachers' behaviors. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the influence is more pronounced among female students in the bottom 50% of the class, those with less educated parents and rural household registration. Professor Qin pointed out that female role models generate unique spillover effects in education. The findings offer valuable implications for advancing educational equity, improving human capital of disadvantaged female students, and encouraging women to pursue science and engineering majors, while also providing empirical evidence for joint education efforts by families and schools.

 

 

Professor Xu Minbo chaired the first round of keynote speeches, and Professor Zhao Guochang presided over the second round.

Second Session of Keynote Speeches (Presided over by Professor Zhao Guochang)

Professor Song Hong from Fudan University presented a report on Artificial Intelligence and Matching Efficiency in the Labor Market. Based on micro big data from online platforms and enterprises, she analyzed practical problems in gig recruitment, including procedural frictions, job mismatch and employment discrimination. The study proves that AI recruitment systems tailored to corporate demands can accurately match job requirements with workers' skills, effectively improving job matching quality, recruitment efficiency and employment stability. Such systems also mitigate identity bias caused by manual screening, achieving better selection and matching outcomes while safeguarding employment equity and sound market operation. The conclusions provide references for improving governance of flexible employment and fostering inclusive employment.

 

Keynote Speech by Professor Song Hong

Professor Zhao Liqiu from Renmin University of China discussed the impacts of short-video usage intervention on children's attention and cognitive development. She stated that short-video platforms, characterized by intensive algorithm recommendations, instant feedback and low cognitive load, severely affect children's attention and human capital accumulation. Young children have limited self-control, while many parents lack awareness of the cognitive costs of excessive short-video viewing, making effective and scalable interventions urgently needed. Her team conducted a randomized intervention experiment by providing parents with evidence-based information about the negative impacts of overusing short videos, and examined subsequent changes in children's viewing habits, attention and cognitive development. The results show that the information intervention prompted parents to impose stricter restrictions, cutting children's daily viewing time, and more detailed information led to stronger behavioral changes. The intervention also helped improve children's math scores, with no significant impact on Chinese language proficiency or non-cognitive abilities. The improvement in math performance was mainly attributed to enhanced attention. This study offers a low-cost and replicable family education solution to reduce digital distractions among children, and provides empirical support for formulating policies on children's digital media use and family education.

 

Keynote Speech by Zhao Liqiu

 

Professor He Haoran from Beijing Normal University delivered a speech titled Using Audit Experiments to Uncover Real Markets in China: Methodological Advantages and Research Applications. He explained that early-stage screening behaviors in the market are covert and sensitive, which cannot be fully identified via traditional observation and surveys. Online audit experiments, which place standardized test subjects in real markets and record responses without the awareness of participants, enable direct causal inference with high external validity, and are well-suited for researching discrimination, screening behaviors and policy effects. He systematically introduced the evolution and procedures of audit experiments, along with research cases in labor markets, marriage, credit, medical services and other fields. He noted that China boasts a large number and wide variety of online platforms, creating favorable conditions for high-quality audit experiments. This methodology has extensive application prospects in identifying discrimination, testing mechanisms, evaluating policies and assessing technology adoption, carrying important academic and practical value.

 

Keynote Speech by He Haoran

 

In the afternoon, four parallel sub-forums were held, focusing on High-Quality and Full Employment, Human Capital and Fertility Behavior, Factor Distribution and Income Distribution, and English Papers respectively. Centering on the core theme of reshaping labor value, human development and employment transformation amid digital and intelligent changes, scholars conducted in-depth discussions on AI and the labor market, employment restructuring, human capital upgrading, fertility choices, income distribution and policy evaluation. Participants shared latest research findings, exchanged ideas and reached consensus, putting forward profound theoretical reflections and policy recommendations for the innovative development of labor economics and the realization of high-quality full employment in the digital era.

Initiated jointly by BNUBS, the School of Labor and Human Resources of Renmin University of China, the College of Economics of Jinan University, the School of Economics of Peking University, the School of Economics of Fudan University, the China Development Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and the Research Institute of Economics and Management of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, the Frontier Forum of Labor Economics has grown into a high-end platform for exchanging cutting-edge academic achievements in labor economics.

 

Contributed by Department of Economics

Edited by Xu Minbo

Reviewed by Sun Zhijun