（Correspondents: Yu Yidi, Yang Siqiu）
To expand the academic horizons of graduate students and create an atmosphere of frontier innovative scientific research, on the morning of November 10, the School of Management invited Professor Li Qingyuan, a Second-Level Professor from the School of Economics and Management at Wuhan University, to hold a Graduate Innovation Academic Forum in the Lecture Hall 413 of the Liberal Arts Building. The report was hosted by Assistant to the Dean Wan Qing. Some teachers from the Accounting Department, all accounting graduate students, and some graduate students from other majors listened to the report.
With the topic of “Reflections on Interdisciplinary Innovation in Financial Accounting Research,” Professor Li Qingyuan pointed out from the very beginning that the frontier of today's accounting research lies in “interdisciplinary integration.” Professor Li emphasized that high-quality research should originate from deep insights into the real world, encouraging teachers and students to look for “primary and important” real problems from China's unique institutional background and macroeconomic events.
In the report, Professor Li Qingyuan used a series of accounting studies spanning political economy, sociology, and environmental economics as examples to vividly explain how to break disciplinary barriers. He detailed papers such as “Agency costs and tax planning when the government is a major shareholder,” revealing how State-Owned Enterprises conduct tax planning and investment strategies under their unique governance structures, and how this correlates with the promotion assessment of local officials.
Addressing the current hot topic of ESG research, Professor Li shared the paper titled “ESG mandate, discriminatory enforcement, and the macro economy.” This research keenly captured a unique phenomenon in the Chinese context: when mandatory ESG disclosure policies constrain the emission reduction of listed companies, local governments, in order to protect GDP growth, may tacitly allow private enterprises to increase pollution, thereby triggering the unintended consequence of “pollution transfer.” This case profoundly reflects the huge potential of conducting cross-disciplinary research combined with China's institutional background.
In the interactive session, attendees asked questions enthusiastically. Professor Li suggested that young scholars, regardless of what position they move towards in the future, must continuously track academic frontiers and read interdisciplinary literature widely. At the same time, he proposed that researchers should possess an open mind, read more academic literature, participate more in academic exchanges, and spark inspiration in the collision of ideas.
(Reviewed by: Zuo Hui)
