Yale Predocs Host Second Annual Conference for Early-Career Economists

Pre-doctoral researchers occupy a distinctive place in economics. They typically spend one to two years engaged in research training and professional development under the supervision and mentorship of faculty or other Ph.D. researchers.

Their work often involves contributing to their supervisors' research projects while also exploring and developing their own research interests.

At a stage often defined by questions about what to study and how to begin building a research agenda, predocs rarely have dedicated spaces to share their original research with one another.

The second annual Pre-Doctoral Economics Conference, hosted by Yale earlier this month, was designed to create just that. Sponsored by the Tobin Center for Economic Policy and organized by Yale predocs, Nicolas Fajardo, Owen Rask, and Goksu Zeybek, the invitation-only conference brought together approximately 70 pre-doctoral researchers from Yale and institutions around the world for a full day of presentations, discussion, and peer exchange. The large majority of presentations were of sole-authored research projects or research projects that were co-authored with other predoc peers.

Tobin Predoc Conf Organizers — Conference organizers Owen Rask, Goksu Zeybek, and Nicolas Fajardo (left to right)

“Opportunities of this kind are rare at the pre-doctoral stage,” said Zeybek. “It was meaningful to help create a platform where early-career researchers could present their work, engage with the research of their peers, and build professional networks across institutions.”

The conference opened with introductory remarks from Michael Peters, Associate Chair of the Yale Department of Economics, before participants split into parallel sessions. Presentations covered a wide range of fields, including spatial economics, industrial organization, econometrics, labor, development, and macroeconomics.

That breadth was one of the defining features of the day, Fajardo said.

“What stood out this year was the diversity of fields and methodologies represented,” he said. “For example, there were multiple perspectives on climate change, ranging from empirical analyses of long-run economic development to macroeconomic models examining its effects on labor markets. Presenters approached questions about social mobility and human capital through the lens of mechanism design as well as using econometric and machine learning techniques.”

The conference also reflected the increasingly global nature of predoc training. More than 15 nationalities from 17 institutions were represented among this year’s presenters, whose papers included “Regulations and Housing Prices,” “The Role of Investor Composition in Sovereign Bond Pricing,” “Teacher Labor Markets with Differentiated Pay,” "Opportunity Costs of Elite Careers and Fertility,” and “Can Governments Defeat Gangs?”

A dedicated space for predocs

While predocs are often embedded in active research teams, the role itself can be difficult to categorize. Pre-doctoral fellows work closely with faculty, contribute to research, and develop technical skills, while also deciding whether to pursue doctoral study and what kind of research agenda they may want to build.

“The pre-doctoral researcher position is a bit of an odd in-between space,” said Rask. “Predocs are connected to and producing frontier research, but the role is temporary, so they are also thinking seriously about next steps and about the questions they may want to build their own research around.”

That makes peer exchange especially valuable. The Pre-Doctoral Economics Conference provides a dedicated setting to present work, hear from others at the same stage, and see the range of questions their peers are beginning to pursue.

“This conference tries to give predocs a dedicated place to share their work and meet peers across institutions,” Rask said. “The goal is to give them a wider view of what the youngest members of the research community are thinking about and experimenting with, while introducing them to people who will likely be their future colleagues.”

For organizers, the hope was that participants left not only with comments on their papers, but with a stronger sense of belonging in the economics research community.

“Above all, I hope participants left feeling like they know more than they think: about the research process, about their own projects, and about how communal the broader economics research community really is,” Rask said.

A growing conference

This year’s conference also marked an important step in the development of the event itself. Yale, Princeton, and Columbia formalized the conference as a rotating annual event, creating a structure for continued growth across institutions. Columbia University will host next year’s gathering.

“For us, the most meaningful development was knowing that this conference now has a future,” said Zeybek. “It gives predocs a space of their own and helps build a community that can grow across institutions.”

About the Tobin Center / Economics Pre-Doctoral Fellows Program

The Tobin Center / Economics Pre-Doctoral Fellows Program at Yale supports policy-relevant economics research while providing high-quality training for individuals with bachelor’s or master’s degrees who are considering a Ph.D. in economics or a closely related field.

Now in its seventh year, the program has supported more than 250 fellows and includes an annual cohort of approximately 70 scholars from around the world. Fellows work full time as research trainees under the supervision of Yale faculty mentors, while also taking or auditing courses, participating in a weekly professional development seminar, and attending department research seminars.

Most fellows work on campus in shared spaces designed to foster collaboration, peer learning, and community. The program has become a national model for immersive, data-driven research training and preparation for doctoral study and other research careers.