Organizational Economics Working Group
Organized by Raffaella Sadun and Andrea Prat
November 13-14, 2025
Royal Sonesta Hotel, Charles Suites, 40 Edwin H. Land Blvd., Cambridge, MA
Format: 25 minutes for the paper presenter, 10 minutes for the discussant, 15 minutes for Q&A.

Thursday, November 13

8:30 am

Continental Breakfast

9:00 am

(Managing) Violence Across UK Prisons

Rocco Macchiavello, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Rocco d'Este, University of Sussex
Ottavia Pesenti, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Discussant:
Florian Englmaier, University of Munich

9:50 am

Power to the Personnel: The Impacts of Managerial Discretion vs. Worker Democracy in Employee Recognition

Namrata Kala, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER
Madeline McKelway, Dartmouth College

Discussant:
Rachel Kranton, Duke University

10:40 am

Break

11:10 am

Automation, AI, and the Intergenerational Transmission of Knowledge

Enrique Ide, University of Navarra

Discussant:
Jin Li, HKU Business School

12:00 pm

A Model of the Babbage Firm (slides)

Joshua S. Gans, University of Toronto and NBER

Discussant:
Wouter Dessein, Columbia University

12:50 pm

Lunch - Somerset Room

1:50 pm

The Rise of Industrial AI in America: Microfoundations of the Productivity J-curve(s

Kristina McElheran, University of Toronto
Mu-Jeung Yang, University of Colorado Boulder
Zachary Kroff, Analysis Group
Erik Brynjolfsson, Stanford University and NBER

Discussant:
Mert Demirer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER

2:40 pm

Rationalizing Firm Forecasts

Nicholas Bloom, Stanford University and NBER
Mihai A. Codreanu, Stanford University
Robert S. Fletcher, Stanford University

Discussant:
David Thesmar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER

3:30 pm

Break

4:00 pm

On Self-Organization: The Formation of Volunteer Fire Brigades in 19th-Century Baden

Guido Friebel, Goethe University Frankfurt
Sebastian Koch, Goethe University Frankfurt
Tristan Stahl, Goethe University Frankfurt

Discussant:
Leander Heldring, Northwestern University and NBER

4:50 pm

Biased Promotions

Daniel Ferreira, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Radoslawa Nikolowa, Queen Mary University of London
Elena Pikulina, University of British Columbia

Discussant:
Michael L. Powell, Northwestern University

5:40 pm

Adjourn

6:00 pm

Reception and Dinner - Royal Sonesta Hotel, Skyline Room

Friday, November 14

8:30 am

Continental Breakfast

9:00 am

Interviews

Elliott Ash, ETH Zurich
Soumitra Shukla, Harvard Business School & The Burning Glass Institute
Jason A. Sockin, Cornell University

Discussant:
Benjamin Friedrich, Northwestern University

9:50 am

Gender Diversity and Teams’ Decision-Making

Maddalena Ronchi, Northwestern University
Viola Salvestrini, Bocconi University

Discussant:
Ambar La Forgia, University of California, Berkeley and NBER

10:40 am

Break

11:10 am

Trade Within Multinational Boundaries

Laura Alfaro, Harvard University and NBER
Paola Conconi, University of Oxford
Fariha Kamal, Federal Reserve Board of Governors
Zachary Kroff, Analysis Group

Discussant:
Evgenii Fadeev, Duke University

12:00 pm

Policy by Committee

Toomas Laarits, New York University
Ben Matthies, University of Notre Dame
Kaushik Vasudevan, Purdue University
Will Yang, Yale University

Discussant:
Stephen Hansen, University College London

The following session will not be livestreamed:

12:50 pm

Working Lunch and Guest Speaker: Nik von Hesler, Global Head of People & Org Strategy, Siemens

1:50 pm

Adjourn