Megafirms and the Economy
Organized by Chad Syverson and John Van Reenen
Supported by the Smith Richardson Foundation
October 24, 2025
Royal Sonesta Hotel, Skyline Room, 40 Edwin H. Land Blvd., Cambridge, MA
Format: 45 minutes for each author with questions from the audience throughout the presentation.

Thursday, October 23

6:30 pm

Dinner, Monteverdi at the Royal Sonesta

Friday, October 24

8:30 am

Breakfast

8:55 am

Welcome

9:00 am

Labour Market Power and Aggregate Productivity

Bernardo Mottironi, Luiss University

9:45 am

The Intangible Divide: Why do so few firms invest in Innovation?

James Bessen, Boston University
Xiupeng Wang, Northeastern University

10:30 am

Break

10:45 am

Labor and Product Market Power, Endogenous Quality, and the Consolidation of the US Hospital Industry (slides)

Bradley Setzler, Pennsylvania State University and NBER

11:30 am

Lunch, Longfellow C

12:30 pm

Mergers and Non-contractible Benefits: The Employees’ Perspective

Wei Cai, Columbia University
Andrea Prat, Columbia University and NBER
Jiehang Yu, Columbia University

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

2:00 pm

Break

2:15 pm

M&A and the Rise of Concentration

Simcha Barkai, Boston College
Ezra Karger, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Scott Loring, University of Chicago

3:00 pm

Information Technology, Firm Size, and Industrial Concentration

Erik Brynjolfsson, Stanford University and NBER
Wang Jin, Chapman University
Georgios Petropoulos, University of Southern California
Xiupeng Wang, Northeastern University

3:45 pm

Closing

3:50 pm

Adjourn