Call for Papers

BREAD / ITAM / CAF Conference on Development Economics

October 23–24, 2026 · ITAM, Mexico City

The Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD) is pleased to announce a Conference on Development Economics, hosted by ITAM and co-organized with CAF (Banco de Desarrollo de América Latina y el Caribe). The conference will take place on Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24, 2026, at ITAM's Santa Teresa campus in Mexico City. It will consist of presentations of advanced-stage research by senior or junior researchers, and presentations of early-stage research by junior researchers.

We encourage applications from scholars based in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), as well as from researchers working on development questions in the region. All research in development economics is relevant to the conference, and submissions from any region or topic within the field are welcome. Applications from PhD students, postdocs, and early-career faculty are particularly encouraged.

A special feature of the conference will be the option of mentoring for junior researchers based in LAC, in the months before the conference by BREAD fellows and affiliates. Junior researchers (PhD students or up to 7 years past PhD, based at LAC institutions) may opt into the mentoring track and submit an extended abstract, research design, or pre-analysis plan instead of a full paper.

Call for BREAD mentors: We invite interested BREAD fellows and affiliates to sign up as mentors by emailing mtromero@itam.mx by July 15, 2026.

Selected papers will be invited to submit to a Virtual Special Issue at the Journal of Development Economics.

We invite submissions from researchers — including non-BREAD fellows and affiliates — on any topic within development economics.

Submission deadline: Friday, June 19, 2026 (23:59 CST)

Notifications: August 1, 2026

Submit at: bread-mexico-2026.github.io/#submit

The submitting author is expected to attend the conference for the entire duration and to present. Please ensure your visa status permits travel to Mexico before applying.

Please share with anyone who might be interested. The full Call for Papers (PDF) is attached.

— The Organizing Committee

Ricardo Estrada (CAF) · Claudio Ferraz (UBC) · Verónica Frisancho (CAF) · Thomas Fujiwara (Princeton) · Marco Gonzalez-Navarro (UC Berkeley) · Paulina Oliva (USC) · Imran Rasul (UCL) · Mauricio Romero (ITAM) · Micaela Sviatschi (Princeton) · Miguel Urquiola (Columbia)

Conference website: bread-mexico-2026.github.io · Contact: mtromero@itam.mx · BREAD membership: iBREAD@princeton.edu

May 2026

Call for Papers

BREAD-CEPR Development Economics Annual Symposium 2026

 Hosted by the University of Zurich

4-5 September 2026

Zurich, Switzerland

Submission Deadline: Sunday 3 May 2026 (23:59 BST)

Programme Committee

Ingvild Almås (University of Zurich & CEPR)

David Atkin (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, BREAD & CEPR)

Lorenzo Casaburi (University of Zurich, BREAD & CEPR)

Esther Duflo (Paris School of Economics, BREAD & CEPR)

    Pascaline Dupas (Princeton University, BREAD & CEPR)

Ronak Jain (University of Zurich & CEPR)

Eliana La Ferrara (Harvard Kennedy School, BREAD & CEPR)

David Yanagizawa-Drott (University of Zurich, BREAD and CEPR)

David Yang (Harvard University & BREAD)

The conference is organised jointly by the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development, the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and the University of Zurich.

It will take place at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, on 4-5 September 2026.

February 2026

Call for Papers: 5/16–17 BREAD Conference on Development Economics | Stanford King Center

The Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD) is pleased to announce the 2026 Conference on Development Economics, hosted by the Stanford King Center on Global Development, on Friday, May 15 and Saturday, May 16.

We invite submissions on any topic within the area of development economics. The conference will feature the following sessions:

• Friday, May 15 (morning): 20-minute presentations of research at an early stage, reserved for non-tenured presenters

• Friday, May 15 (afternoon) + Saturday, May 16 (morning): Full-length presentations on research at an advanced stage

Everyone is invited to attend all sessions of the conference, and non-tenured researchers are encouraged to submit to either session. All papers presented at the conference will be selected through this open submission process. Please submit your paper on Slideroom by January 14, 2026, 11:59 PM PT.

The Program Selection Committee members are: Marcella Alsan, Francis Annan, Nava Ashraf, Michael Callen, Katherine Casey, Arun Chandrasekhar, Allan Hsiao, Jeremy Magruder, Melanie Morten, Imran Rasul, Jonathan Robinson, and Alessandra Voena.

The final program will be announced no later than February 23, 2026.

If you have any questions, please email kingcenter_events@stanford.edu 

December 15, 2025

Fall 2025 BREAD/IGC Course on Social Protection Begins Tuesday, Sept. 16th

The Fall 2025 BREAD-IGC Virtual PhD Course on Social Protection begins Tuesday, September 16th. This twelve-week-long course designed for PhD students and early career researchers will cover a variety of topics related to social protection in low- and middle-income countries.

Each lecture will be led by expert development economists who can provide deep insights into challenges, opportunities, and unanswered questions related to social protection in the developing world.

There is still time to register and join, here:  LINK

Sept 15, 2025