Economics of Talent Meeting
Organized by Glenn Ellison, Ruchir Agarwal, Patrick Gaulé, and Britta Glennon
Supported by Carina Initiatives, Inc.
November 7, 2025
NBER, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA
Thursday, November 6
6:30 pm
Dinner, Royal Sonesta Hotel, Riverfront
Friday, November 7
8:30 am
Breakfast
Talent and Entrepreneurship
9:00 am

Creating New Businesses in America: The Determinants of and Returns to Entrepreneurship

Raj Chetty, Harvard University and NBER
Gaia Dossi, Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF)
Matthew Smith, U.S. Department of the Treasury
John Van Reenen, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and NBER
Owen M. Zidar, Princeton University and NBER
Eric Zwick, University of Chicago and NBER
9:45 am

Entrepreneur Experience and Success: Causal Evidence from Immigration Wait Lines

Abhinav Gupta, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Franklin Qian, UNC Kenan - Flagler Business School
Yifan Sun, University of Pennsylvania
10:20 am
Break
AI Talent
10:40 am

Elite AI Talent and Firm Strategy: Evidence from Academic Lineages and Firm Performance

Sagar V. Baviskar, Carnegie Mellon University
Lee G. Branstetter, Carnegie Mellon University and NBER
Liujie Wu Cameron Drayton Prasanna Tambe, University of Pennsylvania
Eduard Hovy, Carnegie Mellon University
11:20 am

In Good Company: Coethnic Advisors and Career Paths of Immigrant Ph.D. Students

Caroline Fry, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Britta Glennon, University of Pennsylvania and NBER
12:00 pm
Lunch
Talent Identification and Nurturing
1:00 pm

The Long-Term Effects of Gifted Students Programs

Oren Danieli, Tel-Aviv University
Niv Brosh, Hebrew University
David Maagan, Government of Israel
Ran Shorrer, Pennsylvania State University
Noam Zussman, Bank of Israel
1:45 pm

Identifying and Nurturing Math Talent: Evidence from Tamil Nadu

Phi M. Adajar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Esther Duflo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER
Glenn Ellison, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER
Sara Fisher Ellison, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Harini Kannan, JPAL South Asia at IFMR
2:30 pm
Break
Quick Presentations
2:45 pm

The Lost Marie Curies and Foregone Economic Growth

Jean-Felix Brouillette, HEC Montreal
3:05 pm

Discovering and Supporting Hidden Talents through Math Olympiads in Colombia

Santiago Saavedra, Universidad del Rosario
Tomas Buitrago, Universidad del Rosario
3:25 pm

Unpacking the Innovator-Inventor Gap: Evidence from Engineers

Colleen Chien, University of California, Berkeley
Jillian Grennan, Emory University
3:45pm

Gender Dynamics in Entry into Competitive Careers: Evidence from Indian Civil Services.

Niharika Singh, University of Notre Dame
Kunal Mangal, Independent Researcher
4:05 pm
Break
4:30 pm

Keynote: 

Creativity, Productivity, and Lifestyle at Midlife: Findings from the 50-Year, Longitudinal Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth

David Lubinski, Professor of Psychology at Vanderbilt University
5:30 pm
Adjourn