Mission Statement

The mission of the Shanghai Neuroeconomics Collective is to unite and develop the interdisciplinary study of human decision making throughout Asia and the Pacific – linking the study of decision making from the level of neurons to the level of social policy. Our goal is to better understand the mechanisms, predict the impacts, and shape the policies that will define the study of decision making tomorrow. We accomplish this goal by promoting interdisciplinary teaching of graduate and undergraduate students, by developing novel research infrastructures to support the propagation of neurobiological insights about the human animal into the policy domain, and by eliminating the friction that traditionally limits interdisciplinary study between disparate fields of inquiry.

The Collective was founded in 2013 by a group of scholars from New York University in Shanghai, New York University in New York (a leading center for the study of neuroeconomics), and East China Normal University. Combining NYU's and ECNU's longstanding institutional commitments to Neuroeconomics, NYU-SH's regional strength offers neuroeconomists in Shanghai the opportunity to build international strength and leadership in this area.   

Central to this mission, we sponsor regular meetings, colloquia and an international summer school. Our colloquium regularly brings speakers from throughout Asia and from around the world to present their cutting-edge research to our community of scholars. Those visitors also meet with researchers throughout the region during their visits. Our summer school aims to become the preeminent venue for training young neuroeconomists and is modeled on similar schools mounted in the US, Europe and Asia by institutions like Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. Our Shanghai retreat brings together researchers from throughout the region for an informal meeting with student and faculty presentations. A host of smaller programs and research collaborations fill out the Collective's efforts in Shanghai.