European Summer Symposium in Economic Theory (ESSET) 2025

Invitation and Call for Papers
European Summer Symposium in Economic Theory 2025

On behalf of the Organising Committee, we invite you to apply to the 32nd 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 2025 will be devoted to ‘Economic Models of Cognition and Complexity’ and ‘Theoretical Industrial Organization: Digital Economics and Market Design.’
 
> Session 1 (5 – 9 July): ‘Economic Models of Cognition and Complexity,’ organised by Shengwu Li (Harvard University), Pietro Ortoleva (Princeton), and Sevgi Yuksel (New York University)
 
Focus session speakers include Geoffroy de Clippel, Mark Dean (Columbia), Ben Enke (Harvard), Drew Fudenberg (MIT), Muriel Niederle (Stanford), and Antonio Penta (UPF and ICREA), with more to be announced.
 
> Session 2 (10 - 13 July): ‘Theoretical Industrial Organization: Digital Economics and Market Design,’ organised by Alessandro Bonatti (MIT and CEPR), Joyee Deb (New York University), Andrew Rhodes (Toulouse and CEPR), and Xavier Vives (IESE Business School, Barcelona and CEPR).
 
Focus session speakers include Özlem Bedre Defolie (ESMT Berlin and CEPR), Paul Heidhues (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and CEPR), Stephen Morris (MIT and CEPR), Marzena Rostek (Wisconsin), Jidong Zhou (Yale), 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 session (arriving the evening before the session begins and departing the final day after lunch). Subject to availability, there is also an option to stay for both sessions. 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 session they attend. Shorter stays are not in the spirit of this conference.
 
In recent years, other ESSET workshops have been on:
 
2024:

• New Frontiers in Computer Science and Economics: AI, Fairness and Cryptocurrencies organised by Katrina Ligett, Mallesh Pai, and Pietro Ortoleva with focus speakers Nika Haghtalab, Annie Liang, Noam Nisan, Paula Onuchic, and Philipp Strack.
• Political Economy organised by Marina Agranov, Gilat Levy, and Leeat Yariv with focus speakers Yingni Guo, Stephan Lauermann, Nicola Persico, Karine Van Der Straeten, Alex Wolitzsky, and Sevgi Yuksel.

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.
   

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 (beginning the evening before the first day of the session and through lunchtime on the final day) 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 subject to availability. Space is allocated first to academic participants, but subject to the availability of rooms, spouses/partners and children can be accommodated at a charge to cover costs. This will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
 
We have only very limited travel funds available for this meeting to partially cover the expenses of some junior researchers. Therefore we ask participants to source their own funding to cover the expenses of flights and ground transportation to Bern / Gerzensee.
 
Application process
 
To apply to participate in or present at the symposium, please visit the application webpage. 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 24 January 2025.
 
If you have any difficulties registering for this meeting, please contact Bao Khanh Le, CEPR Senior Events Officer at [email protected] for assistance with the subject header ‘ESSET 2025’.
 
Yours sincerely,
  
ESSET 2025 Organisers:
 
Scientific Coordinator: Aislinn Bohren (University of Pennsylvania and CEPR)
Chair of the Organising Committee:  Andrea Prat (Columbia University and CEPR)
 
Session 1: Shengwu Li (Harvard University), Pietro Ortoleva (Princeton), and Sevgi Yuksel (New York University)
Session 2: Alessandro Bonatti (MIT and CEPR), Joyee Deb (New York University), Andrew Rhodes (Toulouse and CEPR), and Xavier Vives (IESE Business School, Barcelona and CEPR)
 
Standing Organising Committee for ESSET: 
Aislinn Bohren (University of Pennsylvania and CEPR)
Johannes Hörner (Toulouse 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)