Zhang Shuguang：

I'm very happy to be here. Firstly, congratulations to Prof. Coase on his 100th birthday! From his speech just now, it can be seen that Prof. Coase keeps his clear mind and is in good health although he's already 100 years old. This is really a great blessing for our economics circle.

Many people gave excellent speeches just now. I think, Coase is not only the founder of new institutional economics, but also the founder of law and economics, just as Shi Jinchuan said just now. What's more important is the set of methods and methodology created by Coase. Many people, including me, benefited greatly from this aspect. In terms of economics research method, Coase is a pioneer who consciously brought case study into economics, and we followed Coase in this respect. Certain case studies have been carried out successively ever since the establishment of Unirule in 1993, the most important of which is Case Studies in China's Institutional Change. It was the No.1 project at that time. Now, we have completed eight volumes of over 100 case studies. The first four are national case studies; the middle three are regional case studies, such as, Zhengjiang Volume, Guangdong Volume, and the Shangdong Volume which is being compiled. Volume 8 and the followings are feature volumes, and Volume 8 is the land volume and has been handed to the publishing house. These studies is of both great historical data value and theoretical value. We are now doing extraction and summary on these case studies so that certain theoretical discoveries could be made. 

In my opinion, the methodology of economics research is of the greatest significance. The previous speakers have all mentioned institution and experience, which I also consider of great importance. Economics research will have no future if it departs from experience and reality. Zhou Qiren summarized Coase's methodology as economics studying the real world. My research practice and academic career tell me that economists should and can only make achievements from real life. One important reason why Coase places great hope on China is that only in countries like China could real practice experience of social and economic system changes be found. That's why Coase is concerned with China, the future of human beings, as well as development of economics. As economists living in China, we are indeed very lucky. As for establishing China's economics or the Chinese school of economics mentioned above, this will be the responsibility and honor of Chinese economists. Now that practice has prepared excellent conditions for Chinese economists, the key lies in how we act. In my opinion, since we are doing research of economics of the real world, we have to go back to social practice for discoveries. Therefore, case study might be a very important means. We should go back to practice and the grassroots to see what is happening, what people there are doing and concerning with, what's their opinion, what they say, and how they do. Then we should make summaries and extractions from these things and see whether these phenomenon could be explained by current theories. If not, we have to give an explanation to them. This is the theoretical research, and actually the true theoretical research.