Summer Institute 2023

More than 3,600 researchers, hailing from 43 countries, participated in the 46th annual NBER Summer Institute, which was held in Cambridge, MA, July 10–28. They attended 51 distinct meetings and workshops arranged by 143 organizers. Most of the meetings also were streamed on the NBER’s YouTube channel. Participants represented 516 universities, central banks, think tanks, businesses, and government agencies. About two-thirds of in-person attendees were not affiliates of the NBER. There were 502 first-time Summer Institute participants. 

A total of 3,221 papers were submitted, of which 594 were included on the program. Mario Draghi, a former president of the European Central Bank and former prime minister of Italy, delivered the 2023 Martin Feldstein Lecture on “The Next Flight of the Bumblebee: The Path to Common Fiscal Policy in the Eurozone.” After outlining the considerations that motivated the creation of the European Monetary Union, he summarized key aspects of its performance over the last three decades and described several key challenges, as well as potential future directions for increasing economic integration. An edited text of his lecture begins on the first page of this issue of the NBER Reporter, and a recording of his talk is available.

NBER Research Associate Jesse M. Shapiro of Harvard University and Liyang Sun of the Center for Monetary and Financial Studies presented the 2023 Methods Lectures on “Linear Panel Event Studies,” which are increasingly used to estimate and plot causal effects of changes in policies and other important economic variables. The lecturers reviewed the basics of identification, estimation, and plotting in these settings, and discussed both some common pitfalls and remedies developed in the recent literature. A recording is available.