Academician Sheng-Cheng Hu passed away on July 10, 2018 at the age of 78.

Dr. Hu was a world-renowned economist who specialized in macroeconomics, public economics, and economic growth theory. His research explored public policies from both theoretical and empirical frameworks, especially delving into the topics of social insurance and private annuity systems, making key contributions in the area of social insurance. His written works on social insurance have not only been widely quoted but have also been adopted as analytical frameworks by leading financial textbooks and social insurance books. Dr. Hu’s academic papers have been published in leading international journals including American Economic Review, International Economic Review, Journal of Finance, and Journal of Public Economics.

Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Hu was recognized by prestigious honors including the National Science Council Outstanding Research Award, the Honeywell Excellence in Research Award, and was also selected as a CIC (Committee on Institutional Cooperation) Academic Leadership Program Fellow. The CIC is the academic consortium of the Big Ten universities plus the University of Chicago.

After teaching economics in the United States for nearly three decades, in 1996, Dr. Hu was invited to return to Taiwan, and he served as the director of the Institute of Economics at Academia Sinica. During his term as director, he established a reward system for research to encourage scholars to proactively publish papers in international academic journals while also paying special attention to economic policy research in Taiwan.

Besides his contributions to research, Dr. Hu also played a critical role in Taiwan’s public policy. In 1997 and 1999, he served as the vice chairman and chairman, respectively, of the Taiwan Economics Association. He also headed the Council for Economic Planning and Development of the Executive Yuan (renamed the National Development Council, NDC), chaired the Financial Supervisory Commission, and served as chairman of the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER). Dr. Hu has not only led the field of economics in Taiwan to new heights, he has also made lasting contributions to the overall economic development of Taiwan.

Dr. Hu was elected an academician of Academia Sinica in 2000.