Production Function Estimation and Its Applications to Industries
Organized by Jan De Loecker, Mert Demirer, and Paulo J. Somaini
December 5, 2026
Royal Sonesta Hotel, 40 Edwin H. Land Blvd.,Cambridge, MA
Format: 30 minutes for authors, 5 minutes for discussants, and 10 minutes for Q&A
Friday, December 4
7:00 pm
Dinner - Location TBD
Saturday, December 5
8:00 am
Continental Breakfast

Session 1: Production and Cost - Environment and Resources
8:30 am

Energy and Production in US Manufacturing

Eva Lyubich, U.S. Census Bureau
Will Rafey, University of California, Los Angeles and NBER
Joseph S. Shapiro, University of California, Berkeley and NBER
Reed Walker, University of California, Berkeley and NBER

Discussant:
Nicholas Ryan, Yale University and NBER
9:15 am

Investment, Productivity, and Selection in the U.S. Shale Boom

Richard L. Sweeney, Boston College
Ryan Kellogg, The University of Chicago and NBER
Konan Hara, Michigan State University
Thomas R. Covert, Airbnb

Discussant:
Allan Collard-Wexler, Duke University and NBER
10:00 am
Break

Markups Panel
Format is 27 minutes  (Chad Syverson and Liran Einav), 4 minutes each (Jan de Loecker and Ali Yurukoglu), and 25 minutes floor discussion
10:30 am

Choices, Choices, Choices: The Combinatorics of Markup Estimates
Liran Einav,  Stanford University and NBER
Chad Syverson, The University of Chicago and NBER
11:30 am
Lunch

Session 2: Production and Labor
12:30 pm

Monopsony and Backloaded Compensation: Theory and Evidence from Public Accountants

Michael Rubens, Boston College and NBER
Bernardo S. Silveira, University of Zurich and NBER

Discussant:
Monica Morlacco, University of Southern California
1:15 pm

From Labor to Intermediates: Firm Growth, Input Substitution, and Monopsony

Matthias Mertens, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Benjamin Schoefer, University of California, Berkeley and NBER

Discussant:
Mons Chan, Queen's University
2:00 pm
Break

Session 3: Production Functions - Methods
2:30 pm

Beyond Labor Augmentation: Identifying the Bias of Technical Change

Daniel Ackerberg, University of Texas at Austin
Qingsong Pan, Zhejiang University

Discussant:
Devesh Raval, Federal Trade Commission
3:15 pm

Production Function Estimation in a Network

Andrew B. Bernard, Dartmouth College and NBER
Glenn C.G. Magerman, Université libre de Bruxelles

Discussant:
Ebehi Iyoha, Harvard University
4:00 pm
Adjourn