2026 IOG Spring Conference
The Institutions, Organizations, and Growth (IOG) Program, in partnership with the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics at the University of Chicago (BFI), invites leading scholars and IOG members to convene three times annually for research conferences and academic exchange. The IOG Program aims to move beyond the limits of traditional economic approaches and provide new frameworks for understanding why some nations succeed economically while others continually fail; why institutions that foster wealth and well-being in one culture, location, or historical period may be less effective in another; and what policies will create the greatest potential for progress. The IOG Program has a long tradition of fruitful interdisciplinary interactions among scholars from a wide range of analytical perspectives in the social sciences.
Participation in IOG-BFI conferences is by invitation only. Scholars who study topics related to institutions, organizations, and growth across a wide variety of disciplines are invited.
For questions, please contact bfi-events@uchicago.edu.
All times are listed in CT
Agenda
Registration and breakfast
Room 501-502
Building with Externalities: Local Governments and Wind Farms
Zane Kashner, Stanford University
Break
The Global Incumbency Advantage
Vincent Rollet, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lunch
Room 501-502
The Business of the Culture War
Aakaash Rao, Harvard University
Reception
Conference Adjourns
Breakfast
Room 501-502
Consuming Values
Jacob Conway, University of Chicago
Break
Article-Level Slant and Polarization of News Consumption on Social Media
Luca Braghieri, Bocconi University
Lunch
Room 501-502
An Image is Worth 40.38 Words: Partisanship and Attention in Videos
Andrea Ciccarone, Columbia University
Conference Adjourns
Conference Dinner
By Invitation Only
Breakfast
Room 501-502
IOG Business Meeting
Room 504
IOG Members and BFI Senior Staff
A Few Bad Apples? Academic Dishonesty, Political Selection, and Institutional Performance in China
Room 504
Shaoda Wang, University of Chicago
Break
Credit Market Conditions for Mass Enrichment or Impoverishment
Roger Myerson, University of Chicago
Conference Concludes
Boxed lunches provided