Data has become the fundamental driving force for economic growth and innovation. Due to its unique nature and as a mechanism for value creation, every link produced by data has also brought challenges in consumer privacy, data security, and data ownership. By promoting the understanding from researchers, policymakers, and business experts from all over the world, Luohan Academy aims to push for a consensus on data governance best practices, privacy protection, and data security so that we can better integrate data into our daily life effectively, safely, and trustingly.

Digital technology has been reforming the economy in an unprecedented way. It brings along new business models, increasing varieties of goods, widespread availability of free services, and ever-growing importance of intangible assets. All of these have a profound impact on the measurement of economic activity and, thus how we understand economic prosperity and, ultimately, social welfare. With big data enabled by technology, Luohan Academy works closely with academia, policy-makers, and business leaders to achieve ever-updating insights on the fundamental changes and measurement of the actual impact.

The world is in urgent need of transformation toward sustainability in environmental, economic and social dimensions for humanity as a whole. This transformation must be harmonized with the opportunities, threats and dynamics of the increasing digitalization processes. The Sustainability program aims to investigate the various options to make digitalization a fundamental driver and source of instruments for sustainability innovations.

The nature of finance is to allocate scarce resources across sizes, time, and risks, and to facilitate the real economy and innovation. Similar to Industrial Revolution, the digital revolution has changed the financial services, institutions, and financial markets profoundly. Based on worldwide frontier financial innovations, Luohan Academy leads the research on future finance with scholars and policy makers, to promote an inclusive, affordable, diverse, and sustainable financial system for the real economy.

Digital technologies exhibit the features of zero marginal cost and network effects bring welfare externalities. This promotes inclusive business activities and inclusive financial services. Luohan Academy engages in research on how does technology innovations bring long term growth space and the methods to deal with the various challenges along the way.

Enabled by digital technology, platform creates coordination at unprecedented scale. However, concerns and debates over the platforms' growing market power, the social responsibility of platforms, and the rules on platforms, are looming. It is time to bring together the insights of researchers, policy makers and practitioners to think about the platform's value, governance and more inclusive future.

From a materialistic point of view, humans becoming who we are, is defined by the tools and technical capabilities we possess. The most important element to economic growth and welfare increase is technological advancement. Luohan Academy wants to establish a complete framework to analyze the dynamics of technological progression interwoven with economics, politics, social mechanism, and finance. The direction of technology will light the way to our future path.