- Event status
- Concluded
- Event dates
- 5 August 2025 – 7 August 2025
2025 Glasgow Annual Conference: programme
Dates. 5–7 August 2025
Venue. University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
Theme. Digital Transformation and Economic Structural Change
As economies move rapidly towards digitalisation, this year's annual conference
focuses on how digital technology, data analytics, artificial intelligence and
intelligent systems can drive economic growth, structural transformation and
sustainable development.
The conference covers a broad set of themes:
- ESG and green finance — greenwashing, ESG ratings, the effectiveness of green bonds
- Artificial intelligence and economic growth — how AI skills affect pay and labour markets
- Climate risk and the financial system — the effect of natural disasters and climate policy on financial markets
- Digitalisation and the reshaping of global value chains — supply-chain resilience and the adoption of digital tools
- FinTech and blockchain — DeFi, digital currencies, financial stability
- Asset pricing and market behaviour — information asymmetry, volatility spillovers, behavioural finance
- Policy innovation and green transition — digital government, carbon neutrality, the diffusion of green regulation
Hosts and organisers
University of Glasgow. Founded in 1451, one of the oldest universities in the
United Kingdom, and the university of Adam Smith. Its Adam Smith Business School
holds triple accreditation (AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA).
CEA UK/Europe. Founded in 1988, the association is among the most influential
organisations for the study of the Chinese economy in Europe. Its official
journal is the Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies.
Keynote speakers
- Wolfgang Härdle — Professor of Statistics, Humboldt University of Berlin; quantitative finance and cryptocurrency markets; creator of the FRM financial risk meter and the CRIX crypto index
- Yongmiao Hong — Principal Investigator, Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Jiadong Tong — Chair Professor, Nankai University; international trade, the digital economy and policy coordination
- Wim Vanhaverbeke — Professor of Digital Strategy and Innovation, University of Antwerp; a founding figure in open innovation theory and Editor-in-Chief of Technovation
- Fan Wang — Professor, Sun Yat-sen University, and President of the China Information Economics Association
- Kathy Yuan — Professor, London School of Economics; macrofinance, digital payments and DeFi; holder of a Bank of England Houblon-Norman Fellowship
Further participants joined from Tsinghua University, Fudan University, the
Chinese Academy of Sciences, University College London, the University of
Edinburgh, the University of Oxford and the Chinese University of Hong Kong,
among others.
Programme highlights
More than 140 papers were submitted from universities and research
institutions worldwide, covering green finance, the digital economy, ESG, AI and
finance, macroeconomic policy, carbon neutrality and international trade.
Tuesday 5 August — registration; a special Job Market forum; a reception for
guests and welcome drinks.
Wednesday 6 August — opening ceremony and three keynote addresses; journal
presentations including JCEBS, JSCM and JDE; a banking roundtable with
Bank of China and academic participants; gala dinner at the Glasgow Grosvenor
Hotel.
Thursday 7 August — eight tracks and more than 30 sessions across green
finance, climate finance, corporate ESG, international trade, the digital economy
and development economics; the Job Market forum continued.
A dedicated job-market session for doctoral candidates gave early-career
researchers the opportunity to present their work and build academic networks.
Venues
- Adam Smith Business School
- James McCune Smith Learning Hub
- Glasgow Grosvenor Hotel
About the association
The Chinese Economic Association (CEA) UK/Europe was founded in 1988. It is an
independent, not-for-profit academic body and among the most influential
organisations in Europe concerned with the development of the Chinese economy.
Its members include academics, students and business executives with an interest
in Chinese economic development. The association aims to improve public
understanding of that development and to promote high-quality research on the
Chinese economy, holding annual conferences and seminars in Europe and China.
CEA publishes the English-language Journal of Chinese Economic and Business
Studies (JCEBS), registered at the TMCD research institute at the University of
Oxford. The journal publishes interdisciplinary work on economics, finance and
management relating to sustainable development. Its editor-in-chief and core
editorial board include Douglas Cumming, Fu Xiaolan, Klaus Zimmermann, Lin
Yifu, Hou Wenxuan, Mi Zhifu, Dwight Perkins, Jeffrey Sachs, Dani Rodrik and Oded
Galor.