Professor Ligang Song is an economist and a supervisor for doctoral students in the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics in the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy. He holds BA in economics from Renmin University of China (RUC), MA in economics from International University of Japan (IUJ), and PhD in economics from the Australian National University (ANU).

His research interests include international economics, development economics and policy studies, institutional economics and the Chinese economy and published work in these and related areas. He led the research team to complete the ARC Linkage Project on China’s rapid industrialisation and its increasing demand on mineral resources focusing on the transformation of China's steel industry with publications in 2012. He was Chief Consultant for International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank working on the projects for development of the private sector and privatization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China and Vietnam in 1999-2004. The project on private sector development in China led to publication of the landmark Report China's Emerging Private Enterprises: Prospects for the New Century (The International Finance Cooperation 2000). He was involved in preparing for the report on the feasibility study for establishing the Boao Forum for Asia in 2000.  

He was involved in establishing, developing and managing the Rio Tinto-ANU China Partnership in 2004-2017, BHP-ANU China Partnership since 2018 and Bank of China (Sydney Branch) China Fellowships since 2018. He has been a convener for organising the annual China Update conferences at the Australian National University since 1999.

Professor Song has one single-authored book: Changing Global Comparative Advantage (Addison-Wesley 1996), and two co-authored books: Private Enterprise in China (Asia Pacific Press 2001), and China’s Ownership Transformation (World Bank 2005), and several co-edited books including China’s Entry to the WTO (Routledge 2000) and China’s Third Economic Transformation (Routledge 2004), and The Chinese Steel Industry’s Transformation (Edward Elgar 2012). He has co-edited and published more than twenty China Update books since 1999 (Search titles).

He was named in the top 250 researchers (in Chinese Studies & History) across Australia in the Australian’s 2024 Research Magazine.