CESifo Area Conference on Behavioral Economics 2026

Scientific Organizers: Ernst Fehr and  Klaus Schmidt

The 16th annual conference of the CESifo Area on Behavioral Economics will once again be organized jointly with the Collaborative Research Center (CRC TRR 190) Rationality and Competition. The purpose of the annual conference is to bring together CESifo network members and CRC members to present and discuss their ongoing research, and to stimulate interaction and co-operation between them. 

Keynote lectures will be held by Supreet Kaur (UC Berkeley), and Philipp Strack (Yale University).

Papers may deal with any topic within the broad domain of behavioral and experimental economics and application to other fields. Please note that the same paper is allowed to be submitted to only one of the CESifo Area Conferences.

Distinguished CESifo Affiliate Award

The Distinguished CESifo Affiliate Award, aimed at talented young scholars, will be awarded to the best paper presented by a young author at this conference. Candidates must have completed their PhDs no longer than five years ago (same applies to any co-authors). Accepted candidates will be invited to attend and present their papers. The criteria for the award are scientific originality, policy relevance, and quality of exposition. The winner will receive a €2,000 award. 

All CESifo Research Network Fellows are welcome to nominate candidates by submitting the nominee's paper, CV and a brief note explaining the motivation for the nomination to the scientific organizers and office@cesifo.de by 21 June 2026.

Conference Details

The CESifo Behavioral Economics Conference will commence at around 9am on Friday, 23 October, and end on Saturday, 24 October, late afternoon. The conference will take place as an in-person event (streaming of sessions will not be provided). 

Accommodation will be organized and covered by CESifo. Economy travel costs for one speaker per paper will be reimbursed in accordance with the CESifo Travel Policy.

Publication

All papers presented at this conference may be submitted to the CESifo Working Paper Series.