Production Function Estimation and Its Applications to Industries

Production function estimation is a central empirical tool across many fields in economics, including industrial organization, trade, development, and applied microeconomics. Production functions provide a framework for measuring productivity and technological change not just in manufacturing but also in healthcare, education, energy, and many service industries. New production technologies—including digital inputs, globalized production networks, and the green transition—have further elevated the importance of production function analysis for policy questions around industrial policy and competition.

To advance research on production function estimation and its applications across industries, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) will convene a research workshop on Saturday, December 5, 2026, in Cambridge, MA. The meeting will be organized by Jan De Loecker (KU Leuven), Mert Demirer (MIT and NBER), and Paulo Somaini (Stanford University and NBER).

The organizers will consider research on a wide range of topics related to production function estimation and its industry applications. Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to:

• Applications of production function estimation in specific industries, including manufacturing, agriculture, energy, healthcare, education, environmental economics, finance, and digital sectors, to study productivity, cost structures, value added, and technological change.
• Methodological advances aimed at understanding modern firm production, such as the role of product differentiation, multi-product production, factor-biased technological change, and intangibles.
• The dynamics and measurement of productivity, including analyses of its dispersion, its evolution over time, and its relationship to innovation, competition, and policy.
• Integration of production function analysis with models of imperfect competition, including the measurement of markups, markdowns, and vertical arrangements.

The organizers welcome submissions of both empirical and methodological research, and especially encourage submissions that apply production function methods to industries other than manufacturing. They also encourage submissions by scholars who are early in their careers and who are not NBER affiliates. Submissions must include brief disclosures summarizing any financial or other potential conflicts of interest of the authors. In keeping with NBER guidelines, papers may not make policy recommendations.

To be considered for presentation, upload papers by 11:59pm ET on Monday, September 14, 2026 

Please do not submit papers that have been accepted for publication and that will be published by December 2026. Authors chosen to present papers will be notified in early October. Questions about this workshop may be addressed to confer@nber.org.