He won the title of "National Young and Middle-aged Experts of Outstanding Contributions" in 1998, and was awarded the "Outstanding Achievements of Overseas Students" by 7 ministries and commissions in 2003. He was the winner of the "4^th China Development 100 Persons' Award", and of the "4^th China Rural Development Research Award". He was selected as one of the "100 Economists That Have Influenced China's Economic Construction in the Last 60 Years".

Since 1998, he has served as Director of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics of CASS, making great and far-reaching research on China's population and employment issues.

In 2006, in view of the unprecedented labor shortage in some areas in China, he put forward the conclusion that China's labor supply was facing the arrival of "Lewis Turning Point", and the economic growth benefited from the "Demographic Dividend" for more than 20 years was facing the transformation of the development model caused by the imminent disappearance of this dividend. His idea aroused great controversy in the economic and demographic circles. However, today, his judgment is gradually proved right by the reality.

In addition to his important position in the field of labor demography, his research works on macroeconomic reform are also regarded as classics and his many important academic achievements are of landmark significance. He is the author of China's Dual Economy and Labor Force Transfer - Theoretical Analysis and Policy Suggestions, Choice at the Crossroads - Deepening the Thinking of Agricultural Economic System Reform, Economics of the Poor and Development and Transformation of China's Labor Market and the co-author of China's Miracle: Development Strategy and Economic Reform and China's Economy. He is the editor of China's Population and Labor Issue Report series, and Thirty Years of China's Economic Transformation and so on.

Among his researches on the economic reform, the book China's Miracle: Development Strategy and Economic Reform (co-authored by Fang CAI, Justin Yifu LIN and Zhou LI) has stirred strong repercussions. As boldly predicted in this book published in the 1990s, China would catch up with the U.S. in the scale of the economy in 2015 by PPP, and in 2030 by the market exchange rate of the time. Once released, this conclusion caused a public uproar. Seen from the reality, the prediction given in the book almost turns out to be true. Justin Yifu LIN, a renowned economist and another author of this book, also gave very high praise of this book.