December 2, 2025, CUFE Business School successfully held the 33rd session of 2025 Excellent Academic Forum in Conference Room 615 of the Main Teaching Building at the Xueyuan South Road Campus. Dr. Zhang Zhao, economist from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), was invited as the keynote speaker. More than 10 participants attended the academic event, including faculty members, doctoral students, master’s students from CUFE Business School and scholars from other universities.
The lecture was chaired by Dr. Gao Zhennan, Assistant Professor at CUFE Business School. Before the event, Assistant Professor Gao Zhennan introduced Dr. Zhang Zhao’s academic and policy background to the attendees. Dr. Zhang Zhao is currently an economist at the International Monetary Fund, having worked successively in the European Department and the Research Department. He has participated in the drafting of the World Economic Outlook report and provided macroeconomic policy consulting for countries including Switzerland and Ireland. His research interests cover macro-finance, financial intermediation, labor finance, etc. He obtained his doctoral degree from the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California.
The theme of Dr. Zhang Zhao’s speech was “The Factor Competition Channel of Interest Rate Transmission”. He proposed and verified a new mechanism of monetary policy interest rate transmission: interest rate cuts enhance enterprises’ growth incentives and increase demand for production factors such as commercial real estate; when factor supply is inelastic, rising factor prices will partially offset the stimulating effect of interest rate cuts on the real economy. Using within-county variations at the ZIP code level in the United States, Dr. Zhang Zhao found that in regions concentrated with industries more sensitive to interest rates, interest rate cuts lead to a larger increase in commercial real estate prices but weaker employment growth. This effect is particularly pronounced in regions with low land supply elasticity and cannot be explained by traditional local demand or collateral channels. The study reveals how the factor cost channel causes heterogeneous impacts on interest rate policies across regions and industries, providing a brand-new perspective for understanding the actual effects of monetary policy.
After the lecture, the participating teachers and students had in-depth exchanges and heated discussions with Dr. Zhang Zhao on topics including the relative importance of the factor competition channel and traditional interest rate transmission mechanisms, the impact of China’s urban land supply elasticity on monetary policy, the micro-foundation construction of macro-financial models, and the spatial heterogeneity of China’s current monetary policy, further promoting academic exchanges in the field of macro-finance.
As an important platform for CUFE Business School to fulfill its mission of “contributing new management knowledge”, the “Excellent Academic Forum” is committed to focusing on cutting-edge issues in the field of business administration and Chinese enterprise management practice. It gathers global wisdom and innovative perspectives to provide theoretical support and practical paths for promoting the sustainable development of Chinese society and economy.
