Economics of Talent Meeting
Organized by Ruchir Agarwal, Glenn Ellison, and Patrick Gaulé
Supported by Carina Initiatives, Inc.
November 15, 2024
NBER, 2nd floor, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA and Zoom

Friday, November 15

Continental Breakfast and Registration

8:35 am

NURTURING TALENT

9:00 am

Targeted Acceleration in Middle School Math: Impacts on College Entry, Degree Completion, and STEM

David Card, University of California, Berkeley and NBER
Laura Giuliano, University of California, Santa Cruz and NBER

Diversifying the STEM Pipeline: Evidence from STEM Summer Programs for Underrepresented Youth

Sarah Cohodes, University of Michigan and NBER
Helen Ho, Harvard University
Silvia Robles, Mathematica

10:30 am

Break

10:35 am

IDENTIFYING TALENT

11:00 am

Finding Young Einsteins: Olympiads and STEM Talent Discovery

Ruchir Agarwal, Columbia University
Patrick Gaulé, University of Bristol
Yuyan Jiang, University of Cambridge

Early Mentors for Exceptional Students

Ian H. Calaway, Stanford University

12:30 pm

Lunch

12:35 pm

INNOVATION & ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS

1:30 pm

Social Push and the Direction of Innovation

Elias Einiö, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Josh Feng, University of Utah
Xavier Jaravel, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Access to Opportunity in the Sciences: Evidence from the Nobel Laureates

Paul Novosad, Dartmouth College and NBER
Eni Iljazi, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Catriona E. Farquharson, Princeton University
Sam Asher, Imperial College London

3:00 pm

Break

3:02 pm

SHORT PRESENTATIONS SESSION

3:30 pm

The Missing Talent in Public Sector

Morten Bennedsen, Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires
Francisco Perez-Gonzalez, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) and NBER
Maria Schlier, University of Copenhagen
Daniel Wolfenzon, Columbia University and NBER
Margarita Tsoutsoura, Washington University in St Louis and NBER

Leading by Example in Science: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in High Schools

Rigissa Megalokonomou, Monash University
Michael Vlassopoulos, University of Southampton
Yves Zenou, Monash University

The Journey of Mathematically Gifted Students from Primary School to Higher Education (slides)

Amrita Ahuja, Douglas B. Marshall, Jr. Family Foundation
Fernanda Ramirez-Espinoza, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile

4:30 pm

Practitioners Panel:

Ilana Walder-Biesanz, National Math Stars
Chris Peterson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Li-Mei Lim, Promys

5:30 pm

Adjourn