The first Beijing Summer School on Socioeconomic Inequality was held from June 17 to June 23, 2013 and was organized by The China Center for Economic Research (CCER) of Peking University and the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity (HCEO) Global Working Group. Professors Steven Durlauf (University of Wisconsin and HCEO) and Yaohui Zhao (CCER) served as co-directors of the Summer School.

This summer school provided state-of-the-art overviews of different aspects of the study of inequality with a specific focus on China. It provided an intensive one-week experience that taught the tools needed to study inequality as well as communicated a sense of the research frontier in understanding inequality. It brought together scholars who specialize in China as well as general methodologists and in doing so promoted interactions and potential collaborations.