research
BSE Summer Forum's focused and interactive workshops attract "critical mass" of researchers
Nearly 800 researchers from leading universities, central banks, and international organizations participated in the fifth BSE Summer Forum from May 31-June 16, 2017.
The Summer Forum includes workshops across many specialized topics in Economics research, during which researchers present their latest papers and ideas for debate with other specialists in the field. It is a unique opportunity to receive feedback from some of the world's top economists.
This year's participants came from more than 200 institutions and presented 357 papers during 26 workshops. Each workshop is organized by BSE Affiliated Professors together with colleagues from other institutions. Invited and keynote speakers are joined by others who submit papers to an open call, which has grown increasingly competitive over the course of the five editions of the Summer Forum. Around 25% of papers submitted were accepted for presentation this year.
The Summer Forum is one of the BSE research initiatives supported by the Severo Ochoa Research Excellence Program. The event organizers this year were Professors Julian di Giovanni (ICREA-UPF, CREI and BSE Deputy Director for Research), Inés Macho-Stadler (UAB and BSE), and Jaume Ventura (CREI, UPF and BSE).
Summer Forum format offers "an interactive environment" that "generates positive spillovers"
Professor Nick Bloom (Stanford University) presented papers in two Summer Forum workshops this year. He appreciated the workshop format, with a more interactive environment than other major international research conferences.
"The BSE Summer Forum is extremely interactive, in well-sized groups focused tightly on key topics. This provides a great way to get feedback on research papers," Prof. Bloom said. "The lunch and dinners afterwards were excellent for further informal discussion – indeed, another paper seems to have sprung up over one of the long Spanish dinners that took place during the conference!" he said.
Professor Joan Monràs (CEMFI) observed that scheduling workshops in parallel is another advantage of the Summer Forum. "The many workshops that happen at the same time allow researchers to interact with people from different fields, something that generates positive spillovers," Prof. Monràs said. "Thus, the Summer Forum is an excellent place to disseminate our own work to a high-quality specialized audience both within our field and outside it, and, similarly, to learn about the research output of other researchers."
"At least in the field of Political Economy, the BSE Summer Forum has become one of the most important annual events at which economists (and some political scientists) meet to exchange ideas," said Professor James Snyder (Harvard University). "The fact that there is a critical mass of scholars with overlapping research interests, combined with the excellent work of the organizers, makes sure that the quality of the presentations is high and the discussion is lively. I would definitely recommend U.S. scholars to participate."
Institutions with 5 or more participants |
|
| United States Federal Reserve System | 24 |
| London School of Economics | 14 |
| University of Oxford | 14 |
| Universitat de Barcelona | 10 |
| University College London | 10 |
| Harvard University | 9 |
| McGill University | 9 |
| University of Cambridge | 9 |
| Stanford University | 8 |
| New York University | 7 |
| University of Warwick | 6 |
| European Central Bank | 6 |
| Northwestern University | 6 |
| Universidad Carlos III de Madrid | 6 |
| University of California, Berkeley | 6 |
| Imperial College London | 5 |
| Princeton University | 5 |
| Sciences Po | 5 |
| University of Minnesota | 5 |
Summer Forum Media Center 2017
All photos, videos, and highlights from this year's BSE Summer Forum will be added to the Media Center as they become available.
