Welcome

EEA Welcome

Hello and welcome all to the 2021 EEA Congress! After a trying year, it will be wonderful to get together at the Congress to learn about all the exciting research economists across different fields have produced and to constructively exchange - and generate - new ideas. 

Of course it would have been nice to meet in person in the beautiful city of Copenhagen, where the Congress was originally to be held, but the experience from last year makes us very confident that we will be able to have fruitful exchanges in this online format, using the EEA’s new platform - #EEAflix, for this occasion, nicked #EEAESEMflix

THANKS

The Congress is the result of many people’s hard work and we would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the organisation. We are especially thankful to the Scientific Committee, led by Antonella Trigari and Philipp Kircher, who put together a terrific programme. We would also like to convey our thanks to colleagues in Copenhagen, particularly Christian SchultzPeter Norman Sørensen and Joanna Hagstrøm for all the preparatory work. We know from the meetings we had with them that they would have put up a fantastic Congress at the University of Copenhagen. Many thanks also go to all the students from ERASMUS School of Economics in RotterdamUniversity College London and University of Copenhagen who will be acting as our ZOOM “Room Managers”, ensuring that the scientific sessions run smoothly. For her contribution to the Congress and more generally, to the functioning of the EEA, we are, as always, immensely indebted to Gemma Prunner-Thomas, the General Manager of the EEA. She is the brain behind the scenes, with the vision and dedication to help us navigate big changes, and the hard work and attention to detail needed to manage the organisation, all marvellously sparked with her unparalleled wit. Last, but not least, thanks to you, the EEA Congress participants, for your support and presence. Let’s have a productive and fun conference!

EEA Virtual Working Group 
Silvana Tenreyro (EEA President), Oriana Bandiera (EEA President-Elect), Maristella Botticcini (EEA Vice President) and Antonio Cabrales (EEA Executive Vice-President)

ES President’s Welcome

It is a pleasure to welcome all of you to the 73rd European Meeting of the Econometric Society. I, like all of you, was looking forward to attending the meeting in-person and enjoying the hospitality of the University of Copenhagen. Yet, we now find ourselves holding a second summer of virtual meetings. We certainly hope to return in-person to the European region this winter in Barcelona at our European Winter Meeting and next summer when Bocconi University will host us in person for the 74th EEA-ESEM.

I thank the University of Copenhagen for first offering to host us in-person this summer and then for agreeing to host us virtually when in-person was no longer viable. As you all probably know, the University of Copenhagen was founded in 1497 as a public research university and is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, ranking among the top universities in Europe.

As usual, we have wonderful and dedicated program chairs and a committed local organizing team of Mette Ejrnaes, Claus Thustrup Kreiner, Joanna Hagstrom, Christian Schultz, and Peter Norman Sorensen. I am most grateful to the program chairs, Aureo de Paula (University College London) and Jan Eeckhout (Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona) who have put together a varied and interesting program for us to enjoy in the coming days, ably assisted by the EEA’s Gemma Prunner-Thomas who continues to organize the EEA-ESEM meeting with energy and efficiency. I thank too all of the area-coordinators and graders whose work was fundamental to putting together the contributed session program. 

We have a rich program of invited events and contributed sessions. In addition to the Fisher-Schultz lecture by Kate Ho (Princeton University) and the Jean-Jacques Laffont lecture by Gianluca Violante (Princeton University), we have a wide range of invited sessions including Veronica Guerrieri, Loukas Karabarbounis, Xavier D’Haultfoeuille, Elena Manresa, Myrto Kalouptsidi, Mar Reguant, Vasco Carvalho, Christopher Tonetti, Bruno Strulovici, Philipp Strack, Toru Kitagawa, and Barbara Rossi. We will also announce the winners of the ESEM Award for the Best Applied Papers by Young Researchers, awards that have been presented since 2013. And I look forward to presenting the Econometric Society President’s Address on Tuesday August 24.

On behalf on the Econometric Society, I thank them all for committing their time and intellect to the EEA- ESEM Copenhagen.

I am also happy that we have once again joined forces with the EEA to jointly organize the ninth Women in Economics (WinE) Mentoring Retreat held in connection with EEA-ESEM Copenhagen. I thank Maria Guadalupe (INSEAD) and Estelle Cantillon (Université Libre de Bruxelles) for their hard work organizing this exciting event and again, Gemma Prunner-Thomas from the EEA, for all of her help.

This too is a good opportunity to thank my colleagues on the Regional Standing Committee, chaired this year by our next President, Guido Tabellini (Bocconi University), who, in his role as chair, helps coordinate the activities of the Econometric Society in Europe. I would also like to thank Sven Rady who is Secretary to the Committee and Olivier Scaillet who manages the finances in his role as Treasurer, for their continued involvement with and commitment to the Society.

The Econometric Society remains one of the few truly global associations for academic economists. In addition to its publishing activities, the Society is deeply committed to bringing economists together in meetings such as this one. So successful has been the Society in its mission to promote mathematical and statistical methods, that these methods now permeate all aspects of economics. It is an honor to be part of the Society, to serve as its President this year, and to participate in this and other meetings around the globe with such talented individuals. I hope you all enjoy this meeting and the stimulating and varied program put together for you.

Penny Koujianou Goldberg, President, 2021