Under the coordination and communication of the Beijing Cairncross Foundation, prestigious economist Professor Li Shi of Beijing Normal University, trustee member of the Beijing Cairncross Foundation, held the ‘173th Hou Wailu Academic Lecture’ at Northwest University on the afternoon of April 24th . His lecture was entitled as ‘Long-term Changes in the Income Gap in China’. Vice President of the Northwest University, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of the Northwest University, Chang Jiang, the head of the School of Economics and Management and more than 200 representatives of teachers and students attended the lecture. The lecture was hosted by Wu Zhenlei, Dean of the School of Economics and Management.

In the opening speech, Vice President Chang Jiang first welcomed experts from the Beijing Cairncross Economic Research Foundation.  He appreciated the Foundation's generous sponsorship for Northwest University students to attend the Oxford Summer School and was very grateful for the such charity lectures given by trustee members.

Professor Li Shi discussed ‘The Long-term Change of China's Income Gap’ from four aspects. He used the informative data to answer the question ‘What is the long-term trend of China's income gap change?’ He believes that the 40-year change in the income gap can be divided into two stages in the year of 2008. In academic circle, there is a common awareness for first stage that China's income gap is constantly expanding. While for the second stage, there are debates on whether the income gap is expanding or narrowing, but in general the gap is still at a high level. Li Shi analysed the recent changes in China's income gap, mainly about two parts. On one hand, with increasing investment in infrastructure construction, the income of migrant workers has risen sharply, which constitutes a narrowing factor for the urban-rural gap. On the other hand, the expansion of property inequality plays more significant role than income inequality.