Higher Education
What does early decision do?
The Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (BPEA) is a semi-annual academic conference and journal that pairs rigorous research with policy analysis to address urgent economic challenges of the day. The Spring 2026 BPEA Conference will be held March 26-27, 2026 by the Brookings Economic Studies program. The conference proceedings will be open via livestream to anyone who wishes to observe the vanguard of economic thought around global economic issues.
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Mark your calendar: Fall 2026 conference will be held September 24-25, 2026.
Agenda
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March 26
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DAY ONE: Thursday, March 26
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Tariffs in 2025: Short-Run Impacts on the US Economy
1:00 pm - 2:15 pm
Authors
Pablo Fajgelbaum Professor of Economics - University of California, Los Angeles
Amit Khandelwal Dong-Soo Hahn Professor of Global Affairs and Economics - Yale UniversityDiscussants
Oleg Itskhoki Professor of Economics - Harvard University
Nitya Pandalai-Nayar Associate Professor - University of Texas at Austin -
Making Sense of Labor Market Indicators Amid Data Imperfections
2:30 pm - 3:45 pm
Authors
Scott Brave Senior Economist and Economic Advisor - Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Erin Crust PhD student - Princeton University
Stefano Eusepi Professor - University of Texas at Austin
Bart Hobijn Senior Economist and Economic Advisor - Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Ayşegül Şahin Professor of Economics and Public Affairs - Princeton UniversityDiscussants
Shigeru Fujita Senior Economic Advisor and Economist - Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
Matthew Shapiro Lawrence R. Klein Collegiate Professor of Economics - University of Michigan -
The Payment System Puts a Floor on the Fed’s Balance Sheet
4:00 pm - 5:15 pm
Authors
Darrell Duffie Adams Distinguished Professor of Management - Stanford Graduate School of Business @DuffieDarrellDiscussants
Wenxin Du Professor of Finance and the Sylvan C. Coleman Professor of Financial Management - Harvard Business School
Ricardo Reis Arthur Williams Phillips Professor of Economics - London School of Economics -
DAY TWO: Friday, March 27
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March 27
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A Tale of Two Countries: The Real Estate Crises in 1990s Japan and Contemporary China
9:00 am - 10:15 am
Authors
Kenneth Rogoff Maurits C. Boas Professor - Harvard University
Yuanchen Yang Economist - International Monetary FundDiscussants
Anil Kashyap Stevens Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Finance - University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Amir Kermani Kingsford Capital Management Chair in Finance and Professor - Haas School of Business University of California, Berkeley -
Have We Bent the Health Care Cost Curve?
10:30 am - 11:45 am
Authors
David Cutler Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics and Dean of Social Science - Harvard University @Cutler_econ
Lev Klarnet PhD student - Harvard UniversityDiscussants
Amy Finkelstein John & Jennie S. MacDonald Professor of Economics - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jonathan Skinner Research Professor in Economics - Dartmouth College -
Mind the Gap: Diverging AI Adoption in Europe and the US
12:00 pm - 1:15 pm
Authors
Alexander Bick Senior Economic Policy Advisor - Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Adam Blandin Assistant Professor - Vanderbilt University
David Deming Isabelle and Scott Black Professor of Political Economy - Harvard University @ProfDavidDeming
Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln President - WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Professor of Macroeconomics and Development - Goethe University Frankfurt
Jonas Jessen Postdoctoral Research Fellow - WZB Berlin Social Science CenterDiscussants
Mert Demirer Assistant Professor - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Raffaella Sadun Charles E. Wilson Professor of Business Administration - Harvard Business School
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