Call for Papers

The Opportunity & Inclusive Growth Institute is pleased to announce a call for papers for its annual research conference. Submissions will be accepted through 11:59 p.m. CT on Sunday, May 3, 2026.

This event will showcase the range of frontier-style research that the Institute engages with and supports. Presenters, discussants, and attendees will engage in a broad scholarly exchange of ideas around presented papers. We invite submissions on questions related to the Institute mission of supporting the Federal Reserve’s dual mandate through research into sources of economic opportunity and inclusive growth. We welcome submissions that inform this mission from both economists and other social scientists, and from a range of methodological approaches.

This year’s event will feature a keynote conversation between Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari. Swagel previously served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and in roles at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the International Monetary Fund, and the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

The second day of the conference is an Early Career Researchers’ Workshop that will focus on developing research by new scholars. Submissions for this day are open to any scholar who has completed a Ph.D. in the last eight years (from 2018 to 2025). We request work that is at an early draft stage, where results are preliminary and incomplete. Scope for value added from participating in the conference to improve the project will be considered in selection. Please do not submit well-developed job market papers.

The program and photos from last year’s conference can be found here. The conference organizer is Amanda Michaud, and this year’s program committee members are Francesco Agostinelli, Alex Albright, Marcus Casey, Amanda Michaud, Makoto Nakajima, Emi Nakamura, and Fang Yang.

Submission criteria

• Submissions to the main conference day are open to current or former Institute visiting scholars, colleagues from the Federal Reserve System, and Institute Advisory Board members.
• Submissions to the Early Career Researchers’ Workshop may come from researchers of any affiliation who completed their Ph.D. in 2018–2025.
• The deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. CT on Sunday, May 3, 2026.

Please email MplsInstitute@mpls.frb.org with questions.

Event details

The 2026 conference will be held in person at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis on October 8 (main conference) and October 9 (Early Career Researchers’ Workshop). Reimbursement for presenters’ travel expenses will be available. Coverage of the main conference will be streamed online.

Institute Research Conference: Thursday October 8

• Approximately 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. CT. Presentations will be scheduled in this time frame.
• Submit full papers by 11:59 p.m. CT on Sunday, May 3. Partial drafts will be accepted, but preference will be given to full manuscripts.
• Each paper will be followed by a discussant and audience questions.
• This portion of the event will be publicized, recorded, and livestreamed.

Early Career Researchers’ Workshop: Friday, October 9

• Approximately 9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. CT. Presentations and discussion will be scheduled in this time frame.
• Open to scholars up to eight years post-Ph.D.
• Submit papers by 11:59 p.m. CT on Sunday, May 3. The focus is on early-stage work. Partial drafts are encouraged. Submit a link to an up-to-date CV at the same time.
• Presenters will be matched with discussants.
• This day will focus on providing constructive feedback and networking opportunities. Accordingly, attendance will be by invitation only, and the event will not be recorded or posted later. Participants will have discretion over social media publicity and subsequent paper postings.