European Summer Symposium in Economic Theory 2024
Submission deadline: 6 PM (GMT) Friday 19 January 2024

Hosted by the Study Center Gerzensee (Foundation of the Swiss National Bank) 
Monday 1 July - Friday 12 July 2024
Gerzensee, Switzerland
 
On behalf of the Organising Committee, we invite you to apply to the 31st European Summer Symposium in Economic Theory (ESSET). Since 1992, ESSET has annually brought together economists and scholars in related fields for two week-long symposiums at the Study Center Gerzensee in Switzerland. The Symposium is organised by CEPR jointly with the Study Center Gerzensee, a foundation of the Swiss National Bank. Each week of ESSET is built around a theme related to economic theory. ESSET 2024 will be devoted to ‘New Frontiers in Computer Science and Economics: AI, Fairness and Cryptocurrencies’ and ‘Political Economy.’
 
Week 1 (1 – 5 July): ‘New Frontiers in Computer Science and Economics: AI, Fairness and Cryptocurrencies,’ organised by Katrina Ligett (Hebrew University), Mallesh Pai (Rice University and CEPR), and Pietro Ortoleva (Princeton).
 
Focus session speakers include Nika Haghtalab (UC Berkeley), Annie Liang (Northwestern University and CEPR), Noam Nisan (Hebrew University), Paula Onuchic (Oxford University and CEPR) and Philipp Strack (Yale University and CEPR) with more to be announced.
Week 2 (8 - 12 July): ‘Political Economy,’ organised by Marina Agranov (Cal Tech), Gilat Levy (LSE and CEPR), and Leeat Yariv (Princeton University and CEPR).
 
Focus session speakers include Yingni Guo (Northwestern University), Stephan Lauermann (University of Bonn and CEPR), Nicola Persico (Northwestern University), Karine Van Der Straeten (Toulouse School of Economics), Alex Wolitzsky (MIT), and Sevgi Yuksel (UC Santa Barbara and CEPR) with more to be announced.
 
In addition to the focus sessions there will be a number of additional seminars. Typically, focus sessions are held in the morning and parallel seminars are held in the evening. This schedule gives participants plenty of spare time to interact and collaborate with one another, and to pursue their own research. Although most invitees have been selected on the basis of their interest in this year's themes, the additional seminars need not strictly fall under one of these headings and we will consider submissions on other topics.
 
Applicants may submit a paper or apply to participate without submitting a paper. Participants typically attend for one week (arriving on Sunday evening and departing on Friday after lunch). Subject to availability, there is also an option to stay for the entire two-week period, arriving on Sunday 30 June and departing on Friday 12 July (note the costs to stay over the middle weekend must be covered by the participants themselves and there are no seminars over this weekend). Slots at ESSET are in high demand. Participants are expected to make full use of them by being present for the whole duration of the week they attend. Shorter stays are not in the spirit of this conference.
 
In recent years, other ESSET workshops have been on:
 
2023:    Challenges in Organizations organized by Sylvain Chassang, Robert Gibbons, Gilat Levy, and Michael Powell with focus sessions by Aislinn Bohren, Andreas Blume, Dana Foarta, Alex Frug, Robert Gibbons, Philippe Jehiel, Andrea Prat, and Paula Onuchic.

              The Economics of Networks organized by Mohammad Akbarpour, Aislinn Bohren, and Sanjeev Goyal with focus sessions by Matthew Elliott, Maryam Farboodi, Sanjeev Goyal, Matthew Jackson, and Stephen Morris.
 
2022:    Credible Mechanisms organized by Vasiliki Skreta and Joel Sobel with focus sessions by Mohammad Akbarpour, Sarah Auster, Tilman Börgers, Laura Doval, Songzi Du, Shengwu Li, Mallesh Pai, and Marek Pycia.
 
Value and Cost of Information Gathering and Processing organized by Emir Kamenica and Stephen Morris with focus sessions by Balazs Szentes, Dirk Bergemann, Yeon-Koo Che, Andrew Caplin, George-Marios Angeletos, Jennifer La'O, and Weijie Zhong.
 
2019:    Advances in Behavioral Theory organized by Aislinn Bohren and Philipp Strack with focus sessions by Mira Frick, Daniel Gottlieb, Yusufcan Masatlioglu, and Kareen Rozen.
 
Information, Learning, and Markets organized by Yeon-Koo Che and Johannes Horner with focus sessions by Alessandro Bonatti, Hugo Hopenhayn, George Mailath, Ilya Segal, Juuso Välimäki, and Nicolas Vieille.

Facilities and Travel Logistics
 
The facilities at the Study Center Gerzensee are outstanding. In addition to seminar rooms and an auditorium, there are group rooms, computer facilities, a library and a reading room. The Study Center Gerzensee is housed in a converted manor house built around 1700 on the fringes of Gerzensee. It is situated in the heart of one of the most beautiful parts of Switzerland, the Bernese Oberland, and within easy reach of the Jungfrau and the Eiger. The Centre has numerous leisure facilities, including an exercise room, tennis courts and a games room. There is a lake in which it is possible to swim and a swimming pool in one of the neighbouring villages.
 
Food and accommodation (checking in on Sunday and out on Friday only) are provided free of charge to participants thanks to the generosity of the Study Center Gerzensee. Please note that additional nights are at the participants' own expense and that no meals (except for breakfast) are provided over the middle weekend between sessions. Space is allocated first to academic participants, but subject to the availability of rooms, spouses/partners can be accommodated at a charge to cover costs. There is limited accommodation available for children, and this will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. A price list for spouses and children can be found on the event webpage.
 
Travel funds for this meeting are not available and therefore we ask all participants to source their own funding to cover the expenses of flights and ground transportation to Bern / Gerzensee (there is a limited shuttle service provided by the Study Center Gerzensee from / to Bern train station).
 
Application process
 
To apply to participate in or present at the symposium, please visit the application webpage (https://upenn.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8AOZVLo7X18E87A) . If you would like to submit a paper for consideration, please upload a provisional draft (or at least a one-page abstract) online. Please note that due to natural time restrictions and the large number of paper proposals, it will not be possible to include all papers submitted in the programme.
 
Places will be strictly limited and priority will be given to those who respond by 6 PM (GMT) on Friday 19 January 2024.
 
If you have any difficulties registering for this meeting, please contact Despoina Chatzilari at [email protected] or Skyler Gomez at [email protected] for assistance with the subject header ‘ESSET 2024’.
 
Yours sincerely,
ESSET 2024 Organisers:
 
Scientific Coordinator: Aislinn Bohren (University of Pennsylvania and CEPR)
Chair of the Organising Committee:  Andrea Prat (Columbia University and CEPR)
 
Week 1: Katrina Ligett (Hebrew University), Mallesh Pai (Rice University and CEPR), and Pietro Ortoleva (Princeton).
 
Week 2: Marina Agranov (Cal Tech), Gilat Levy (LSE and CEPR), and Leeat Yariv (Princeton University and CEPR).
 
Standing Organising Committee for ESSET: 
Aislinn Bohren (University of Pennsylvania and CEPR)
Johannes Hörner (Yale University and CEPR)
Emir Kamenica (University of Chicago and CEPR)
Gilat Levy (London School of Economics and CEPR)
Margaret Meyer (Oxford University and CEPR)
Stephen Morris (MIT and CEPR)
Pietro Ortoleva (Princeton University)
Marco Ottaviani (Bocconi University and CEPR)
Andrea Prat (Columbia University and CEPR)
Vasiliki Skreta (UT Austin, UCL and CEPR)
Joel Sobel (UCSD)
Dezsö Szalay (University of Bonn and CEPR)
Xavier Vives (IESE Business School, Barcelona and CEPR)
Lucy White (Boston University and CEPR)