2026
The Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (BPEA) is a semi-annual academic conference and journal that pairs rigorous research with real-time policy analysis to address urgent economic challenges of the day. The Fall 2025 BPEA Conference was held September 25-26, 2025 by the Brookings Economic Studies program. The conference material and recordings are available on this page for anyone who wishes to observe the vanguard of economic thought around global economic issues.
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Mark your calendar: Spring 2026 conference: March 26-27, 2026; Fall 2026 conference: September 24-25, 2026.
Agenda
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September 25
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DAY ONE: Thursday, September 25
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Employment Impacts of the CHIPS Act
1:00 pm - 2:15 pm
Authors
Bilge Erten Associate Professor of Economics and International Affairs - Northeastern University
Joseph E. Stiglitz Co-President - Columbia University Initiative for Policy Dialogue
Eric Verhoogen Professor and Co-Director of Center for Development Economics and Policy - Columbia UniversityDiscussants
Pinelopi Goldberg William Nordhaus Professor of Economics and Global Affairs - Yale University -
Trade War and the Dollar Anchor
2:30 pm - 3:45 pm
Authors
Tarek A. Hassan Professor of Economics - Boston University
Thomas M. Mertens Vice President - Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
Tony Zhang Visiting Associate Professor - Arizona State UniversityDiscussants
Jesse Schreger Associate Professor - Columbia Business School -
What Next for r*? A Capital Market Equilibrium Perspective on the Natural Rate of Interest
4:00 pm - 5:15 pm
Authors
Lukasz Rachel Assistant Professor - University College LondonDiscussants
Adrien Auclert Associate Professor - Stanford University
Marco Del Negro Vice President - Federal Reserve Bank of New York -
DAY TWO: Friday, September 26
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September 26
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Technology and Labor Markets: Past, Present, and Future; Evidence from Two Centuries of Innovation
9:00 am - 10:15 am
Authors
Dimitris Papanikolaou John L. & Helen Kellogg Professor of Finance - Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Lawrence D. W. Schmidt Associate Professor of Finance, Rady School of Management and the Department of Economics - University of California, San Diego
Bryan Seegmiller Assistant Professor of Finance - Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern UniversityDiscussants
William Kerr D’Arbeloff Professor of Business Administration - Harvard Business School
Christina Patterson Associate Professor of Economics and Robert King Steel Faculty Fellow - Booth School of Business, University of Chicago -
Policy Concerns in an Era of Low Fertility: The Role of Social Comparisons and Intensive Parenting
10:30 am - 11:45 am
Authors
Michèle Tertilt Professor - University of Mannheim
Minchul Yum Associate Professor - Virginia Commonwealth UniversityDiscussants
Melissa S. Kearney Nonresident Senior Fellow - Economic Studies, Center for Economic Security and Opportunity, The Hamilton Project @kearney_melissa
David Weil James and Merryl Tisch Professor of Economics - Brown University -
Who Bears the Burden of Climate Inaction?
12:00 pm - 1:15 pm
Authors
Christopher Knittel Associate Dean for Climate and Sustainability - MIT Sloan School of Management
Catherine Wolfram Nonresident Senior Fellow - Center on Regulation and MarketsDiscussants
Tatyana Deryugina Associate Professor of Finance - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Wolfram Schlenker Ray A. Goldberg Professor of the Global Food System - Harvard Kennedy School
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