Ma Hong is a Professor and PhD supervisor in the Department of Economics at Tsinghua University, and serves as Associate Chair of the Department. He is also a recipient of a national-level young talent programme. He graduated from the School of Economics at Fudan University in 2002 with a Bachelor’s degree in World Economy, and received his PhD in Economics from the University of California, Davis in 2009. His research focuses on the Chinese economy, particularly in the areas of international trade and economic development, and he has published dozens of papers in leading journals both in China and internationally, including Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of International Economics, and Economic Research Journal. His research shows that improvements in export tax rebate efficiency significantly promote firm exports, with related findings published in China Economic Quarterly in 2024.

He currently serves as an advisor to the Ministry of Commerce, Associate Editor of Journal of Comparative Economics and China Economic Review, and concurrently as Deputy Director of the China Center for Economic Research at Tsinghua University, Research Fellow at the China Data Center for Economic and Social Research, and a member of the Academic Committee for Talent Training at the Institute for International and Area Studies.