CES Munich Lectures in Economics 2026

Since 1994, the Center for Economic Studies (CES) has annually named the Distinguished CES Fellow—one of the most prestigious awards in economics. Many recipients, recognized in Munich for their exceptional contributions to the field, have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics.

In 2026, CES honors another internationally outstanding economist, Edward Glaeser, Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University, as its Distinguished CES Fellow. 

Edward Glaeser will deliver the 2026 Munich Lecture on "Turning Abundance into Scarcity: Regulation, Housing Costs and Infrastructure Failures".

Can our governments deliver more services without spending more money? This year’s Distinguished CES Fellow Edward Glaeser will focus his lecture on three areas of public sector dysfunction: the regulation of new housing, public sector procurement, and maintenance of existing infrastructure.

Housing prices have soared, while new housing production has plummeted. Regulation, rather than a lack of land, appears the most likely explanation of this supply shift, which has enriched homeowners and created an affordability crisis. Public procurement with its fifteen percent of global GDP often becomes dysfunctional when managers are bound by rules which treat fraud as being vastly worse than waste. Regarding infrastructure, it can be assumed that maintenance is poorly targeted if road roughness is uncorrelated with subsequent repaving.

Considering these examples of dysfunction, how does reform happen? Simple reforms that face fewer veto points are much more successful. The frequency of reform attempts is driven more by the reform success rate, rather than the benefits of reform. Edward Glaeser’s lecture highlights the value of understanding the reform possibilities frontier.

Details: 
Thursday, 19 November (6pm)
LMU Munich (Große Aula) 
The program is available on the CES webpage. 

An advance registration is not required. A video recording will be available on the CESifo website a few days after the event.

The Munich Lectures are organized by CES in cooperation with CESifo and supported by a Munich Re sponsorship.