What is LAEF?

Furthering research in growth
and fluctuations of aggregate economies.

4th Labor Markets and Macroeconomics Outcomes

April 4-5, 2025
Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN

This conference is co-sponsored and hosted by Vanderbilt University. This conference focuses on the role labor markets play in determining broader macroeconomic outcomes. Bringing together a diverse group of researchers studying both new labor datasets and new theories of the labor market, the conference goal is to broaden understanding of how labor market outcomes are affected by and contribute to both short-run business cycles and long-run economic trends. Participants will consider both aggregate labor market outcomes and how macroeconomic forces disproportionately impact individual workers and firms across the wage, income, skill, and productivity distributions. Discussions arising from this conference will help inform policymakers seeking both aggregate labor market stability and more equitable labor market outcomes for a diverse set of both workers and employers. The conference organizers are Adam Blandin (Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University), Kathleen McKiernan (Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University), and Nick Pretnar (Assistant Director, UCSB-LAEF).


Demographic Inequality in Aggregate Economics

April 11-12, 2025
University at Albany (SUNY)

The University at Albany, SUNY, the Laboratory for Aggregate Economics and Finance at University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Program on Economic Inclusion at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland are organizing a conference on demographic inequality and the macroeconomy to be held in Albany, NY, on April 11th and 12th, 2025. The focus of the conference is group-level inequality, such as differences in outcomes by race, gender, or ethnicity, but papers addressing related issues either empirically or theoretically will also be included. The submission portal for this conference closed on January 3, 2025, and the organizers expect to make decisions regarding submissions by February 15, 2025. The organizers are Benjamin Griffy (Assistant Professor, University at Albany), John Bailey Jones (Vice President of Microeconomic Analysis, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond), Karen Kopecky (Director of the Program for Economic Inclusion, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland), Nick Pretnar (Assistant Director, UCSB-LAEF), and Eric Young (Professor, University of Virginia).


XXVII Workshop on Dynamic Macroeconomics

July 8-10, 2025
Vigo (Pontevedra), Spain

This workshop is sponsored by Universidade de Vigo and funded by LAEF at UCSB. It caters to PhD students from European institutions who will be on the job market during the 2025-26 academic year. We also accept submissions from students in Europe at earlier stages of the PhD and other (very) early career economists in Europe. The aim of the workshop is to offer young researchers interested in macroeconomics a forum for presentation and discussion of research papers representing both theoretical and empirical advances in macroeconomics. The submission portal is currently open, and interested scholars should see the submission guidelines at the following link in order to upload a draft of the paper they wish to submit: https://workshop.webs.uvigo.es/pdfs/WDM_Call.pdf. The scientific committee consists of co-chairs Arpad Abraham (University of Bristol) and Franck Portier (University College London), as well as Jaime Alonso Carrera (Universaded de Vigo), Juan Carlos Conesa (Stony Brook University), Antonia Diaz (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Sergio Feijoo Moreira (University of Bristol), Timothy Kehoe (University of Minnesota), Finn Kydland (UCSB and LAEF), Omar Licandro (University of Leicester), Nick Pretnar (Assistant Director, UCSB-LAEF), and Jose Victor Rios Rull (University of Pennsylvania).


4th Annual Junior Workshop in Macroeconomics

October 10-11, 2025
NYU Stern in New York

The Laboratory for Aggregate Economics (LAEF) at UC-Santa Barbara is proud to co-sponsor the 4th Annual Junior Workshop in Macroeconomics along with the NYU Stern School of Business. We bring together junior researchers across various subfields of macroeconomics to present and discuss papers relevant for both theory and policy. The academic organizers are Job Boerma (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Paolo Martellini (NYU Stern), and Nick Pretnar (Assistant Director, UCSB-LAEF).


14th Advances in Macro-Finance Tepper-LAEF Conference at Santa Barbara

October 17-18, 2025
The Upham Hotel, Santa Barbara

The Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University and the Laboratory for Aggregate Economics and Finance at the University of California Santa Barbara will hold the 14th conference on Advances in Macro-Finance, designed to bring together leading scholars in the field. The conference will consist of selected papers with a formal discussant for each paper. The focus of the conference is on research at the intersection of macroeconomics and finance. We welcome both theoretical and empirical research on topics including, but not limited to: impact of financial and investment frictions; labor markets; credit risk and corporate financing; models of risk premia; determinants of income and wealth inequality; household finance; and taxation. Preference will be given to recent papers that have not previously been presented at major conference. A call for papers will open in summer of 2025,


Vol XVII, No. 2

In this issue: 2nd Jr Macro, 3rd Labor Markets and Outcomes, and LAEF on the Lakes

Vol XVII, No. 1

In this issue: XXVI Workshop on Dynamic Macroeconomics & Human Capital in Macroeconomics

Vol XVI, No. 5

In this issue: Tom Cooley Memorial Conference & Fifth Annual Women in Macroeconomics