Zhang Peigang Economics Award, Overview of the 2nd Award Ceremony: I. Conference Background, Objectives, and Significance. Mr. Zhang Peigang is one of China's internationally renowned senior economists. As early as the mid-1940s, he completed his doctoral dissertation at Harvard University titled "Agriculture and Industrialization," which won the Best Dissertation Award - the "David A. Wells Prize" for 1946-47. This work was published as Volume 85 of the Harvard Economic Studies in 1949.