The NBER plans to host the fourth Innovation Research Boot Camp in Cambridge, MA in July 2025. The broad goal of this initiative is to encourage young scholars to carry out research on the economics of innovation and innovation policy. This weeklong program, which will be held subject to continued funding from Open Philanthropy, will expose participants to the exciting questions in the field through both coursework and engagement with the innovation research community.
The economics of innovation touches all fields of economics. Innovation is a key force in economic growth, firm dynamics, inequality, and labor market outcomes. It interfaces with public finance, international trade, the economics of organizations, and urban economics. At the same time, the economics of innovation is rarely taught as a separate field course within economics departments, making it difficult for students to engage the foundational ideas, institutions, empirical evidence, and frontier questions in this critical sphere. This boot camp will provide an on-ramp for scholars who want to do research in the economics of innovation or on issues in other sub-fields of economics that touch on innovation.
The boot camp will convene in Cambridge, MA, on Friday, July 11, 2025, and conclude on Thursday, July 17, 2025. There will be no activities on Sunday, July 13. Participants will spend Tuesday and Wednesday, July 15 and 16, attending the NBER Summer Institute Innovation Policy meeting.
The four instructional days will include two lectures of three hours each. Lecturers will include Pierre Azoulay (MIT Sloan), Kevin Bryan (Toronto Rotman), Ina Ganguli (UMass Amherst), Ben Jones (Northwestern Kellogg), Chad Jones (Stanford GSB), Kyle Myers (HBS), and Heidi Williams (Dartmouth). John Van Reenen (London School of Economics, currently on leave as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors to the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer) may also participate. The closing session will be a panel discussion on research and careers with Matt Clancy (Open Philanthropy), Dylan Matthews (Vox Future Perfect), and Caleb Watney (Institute for Progress), moderated by Williams. There will be two keynote lectures: one by Glenn Hubbard (Columbia Business School) and a second, joint with the Entrepreneurship Research Boot Camp, tentatively by Ronnie Chatterji (Duke University and OpenAI).
The boot camp will include around 25 participants, who are PhD students or recent PhDs who are post-docs, faculty members, or affiliates of non-academic research institutions. Participants must have completed at least two years of PhD coursework in economics or a closely-related field, such as financial economics. Students who have previously attended the Innovation Research Boot Camp are not eligible, and students who have previously attended the NBER Entrepreneurship Boot Camp should explicitly state that in their cover letter and include a note on why they think they would additionally benefit from attending this program. The NBER will cover travel expenses, subject to its reimbursement policy, lodging for up to eight nights, and meal costs for participants.
Applications will be reviewed by a panel consisting of Kevin Bryan (Toronto), Ina Ganguli (UMass Amherst), and Kyle Myers (HBS). Applications from scholars from all backgrounds and institutions who are interested in innovation research are welcome.
Applicants should assemble the following materials in a single PDF file:
1) A cover letter that includes complete contact information, as well as the name of one recommendation letter writer.
2) A curriculum vitae and a list of all current and completed PhD courses.
3) A one-page essay that describes the applicant's current and future research as well as the reason for wanting to attend the boot camp.
Upload the application packet by 11:59pm EST on Thursday, February 6, 2025.
Applications that are not complete by the deadline will not be considered. Applicants should use their name when completing the "Title of application" field. In addition, a short confidential letter of recommendation, no more than half a page, from a current or former PhD advisor, or another scholar familiar with the applicant's work, should be sent via email, by the same deadline, to Brett Maranjian at the NBER (maranjian@nber.org).
Acceptance decisions will be announced by early March. Questions about logistics may be addressed to confer@nber.org; questions about boot camp content to either Ben Jones (bjones@kellogg.northwestern.edu) or Heidi Williams (heidi.lie.williams@dartmouth.edu).