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Models are essential inputs to economic analysis. Yet, an economic model is at best only an approximation to a complex social reality. Economists have approached the issue of model misspecification from two perspectives. A first approach considers how agents within an economic model deal with the possibility that their model of the world may be wrong. A second approach studies how existing econometric techniques for the analysis and interpretation of data must be modified when the model is misspecified. In both settings, robust decision making requires the economic agent or the econometrician to explicitly allow for the risk of misspecification. The aim of the conference, “Robustness in Economics and Econometrics,” is to bring together researchers engaged in these two modeling approaches.

This conference is co-sponsored by BFI’s Macro Finance Research Program and Big Data Initiative.

Agenda

Friday, April 5, 2019
8:00 am - 9:00 am
Registration and Breakfast
9:00 am - 9:05 am
Welcoming Remarks
9:05 am - 10:05 am
Assessing Misspecification and Aggregation for Structured Preferences
Roy Allen (Presenter), Western University
John Rehbeck, Ohio State University
Fernando Alvarez (Discussant), University of Chicago
10:05 am - 11:05 am
Belief Heterogeneity with Uninsurable Risks

 

Jaroslav Borovicka (Presenter), New York University; Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Anmol Bhandari, University of Minnesota
Jonathan Payne, New York University
Jose Scheinkman (Discussant), Columbia University
11:05 am - 11:20 am
Break
11:20 am - 12:20 pm
Self-justified Equilibria: Existence and Computation
Felix Kubler (Presenter), University of Zurich
Simon Scheidegger, HEC Lausanne
Thomas Winberry (Discussant), University of Chicago Booth School of Business
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Lunch
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Sensitivity and Informativeness under Local Misspecification
Isaiah Andrews (Presenter), Harvard University
Matthew Gentzkow, Stanford University
Jesse Shapiro, Brown University
Jinyong Hahn (Discussant), UCLA
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Estimation under Ambiguity
Toru Kitagawa (Presenter),  University College London
Raffaella Giacomini, University College London
Harald Uhlig, Bruce Allen and Barbara Ritzenthaler Professor in Economics and the College, the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics
Stephane Bonhomme (Discussant), University of Chicago
3:30 pm - 3:45 pm
Break
3:45 pm - 4:45 pm
Structured Uncertainty and Model Misspecification
Thomas Sargent (Presenter), New York University
Lars Peter Hansen, The David Rockefeller Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and Statistics, the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics and the Booth School of Business; Director of BFI's Macro Finance Research Program
Xiaohong Chen (Discussant), Yale University
Saturday, April 6, 2019
8:15 am - 9:00 am
Registration and Breakfast
9:00 am - 10:00 am
Statistical Reports for Remote Agents
Jesse Shapiro (Presenter), Brown University
Isaiah Andrews, Harvard University
Jann Spiess (Discussant), Microsoft Research
Sensitivity Analysis using Approximate Moment Condition Models
Michal Kolesar (Presenter), Princeton University
Timothy B. Armstrong, Yale University
Bruce Hansen (Discussant), University of Wisconsin
11:00 am - 11:15 am
Break
Robust Dynamic Utility
Massimo Marinacci (Presenter), Bocconi University
Lars Peter Hansen (Discussant), University of Chicago
12:15 pm - 1:15 pm
Lunch
1:15 pm - 2:15 pm
Counterfactual Sensitivity and Robustness
Tim Christensen (Presenter), New York University
Benjamin Connault, IEX Group
Jack Porter (Discussant), University of Wisconsin-Madison
2:15 pm - 2:30 pm
Break
Minimizing Sensitivity to Model Misspecification
Martin Weidner (Presenter), University College London
Stephane Bonhomme, University of Chicago
Kirill Evdokimov (Discussant), MIT