Call for Applications - Doctoral Student Workshop on Economics of Artificial Intelligence

Virtual Workshop - September 22, 2021

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), with the generous support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, will host a workshop for Ph.D. students in economics on topics related to artificial intelligence (AI).  The workshop will involve a mix of lectures from leading scholars and student group discussions. It is targeted to students who are beginning or conducting research in this area. The workshop will be organized by NBER affiliates Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb, of the University of Toronto, and Catherine Tucker of MIT.  The goal is to promote research activity on topics related to AI, and to enable graduate students who are working in this area to begin developing a network of like-minded scholars.  The programs for past workshops may be found at: http://conference.nber.org/sched/YSAIf18, http://conference.nber.org/sched/YSAIf19, and http://conference.nber.org/sched/YSAIf20.  Some participants in the workshop may be invited to attend the fifth annual NBER Conference in AI, which will be held virtually on September 23-24, 2021.   

Applicants must have successfully completed the first year of their Ph.D. program.  They should use this link

https://conference.nber.org/confsubmit/backend/cfp?id=YSAIf21a

to submit the following materials in a single PDF file by 11:59pm EDT on Monday, May 31, 2021: 

  • Contact information, including email address.
  • A one page CV, including key coursework and major (and minor if applicable) focus of study.
  • A maximum 300 word summary of the applicant’s interest in AI. This could include research already undertaken, links from current research focus on AI topics, or reasons for newly formed interest in the topic.

Applications from students who are members of groups that are under-represented in economics are welcome. Acceptance decisions will be announced by early July, 2021.  

Questions about the application process may be addressed to confer@nber.org; questions about the content of the workshop may be addressed to avi.goldfarb@utoronto.ca.