The Institutions, Organizations, and Growth (IOG) Program, in partnership with the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics at the University of Chicago (BFI), invite 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.

The 2025 Spring IOG-BFI Conference will take place on March 28-30, 2025. Please note the future IOG conference dates following the March 2025 meeting is June 6-8, 2025 in Berkeley, CA, and October 3-5, 2025 in Chicago, IL.

Agenda

Friday, March 28, 2025
8:30 am–9:00 am

Registration and Breakfast

Room 501-502

9:00 am–10:30 am

Redistricting with Endogenous Candidates

Paola Moscariello, Princeton University

10:30 am–11:00 am

Break

11:00 am–12:30 pm

Fighting Silent Killers: How India’s Public Healthcare Staffing Expansion Saves Lives by Improving Access and Market Quality

Patrick Agte, Yale University

12:30 pm–2:00 pm

Lunch

Room 501-502

2:00 pm–3:30 pm

The Political Economics of Party Entry

Tim Besley, London School of Economics

6:00 pm

Conference Dinner

By invitation only.

Saturday, March 29, 2025
8:30 am–9:00 am

Breakfast

Room 501-502

9:00 am–10:30 am

Party Lines or Voter Preferences? Explaining Political Realignment

Nicolas Longuet-Marx, Columbia University

10:30 am–11:00 am

Break

11:00 am–12:30 pm

MARS (Missing At Random Structured Data): A Unifying Framework for Robust and Efficient Inference with Unstructured Data

Melissa Dell, Harvard University

12:30 pm–2:00 pm

Lunch

Room 501-502

2:00 pm–3:30 pm

The Price of Faith: Economic Costs and Religious Adaptation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Eduardo Montero, University of Chicago

3:30 pm–4:30 pm

Reception

Room 501-502

Sunday, March 30, 2025
8:00 am–9:00 am

Breakfast

Room 501-502

8:30 am–9:00 am

IOG Business Meeting

Room 504

Program Members and BFI Senior Staff

9:00 am–10:30 am

I’d Be Surprisingly Good for You: Political Information and Network Effects

Georgy Egorov, Northwestern University

10:30 am–11:00 am

Break

11:00 am–12:30 pm

Noisy Warning Systems and Nuclear War

James Fearon, Stanford University

12:30 pm

Conference Adjourns

Boxed lunches provided.