U.S. Economy
Economic issues to watch in 2026
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.
Submit a proposal for future conferences
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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