Past Events
Below you may a find a selection of our past events.
During the 2025 Jon Goldstein Memorial Lecture, we heard Bård Harstad of Stanford University present his research, "The Economics of Conservation." Following his presentation, Bård was joined by esteemed panelists Richard Sandor and Bob Litterman and moderator Jessica Donohue for an engaging Q&A discussion.
A recording of the event is available on our Department of Economics YouTube page, titled 2025 Jon Goldstein Memorial Lecture: Bård Harstad on "The Economics of Conservation."
Economic Policy was a hot topic in the recent presidential campaign. Watch this recording for an impromptu and informal discussion on the possible economic policies of the incoming Trump administration, focusing on tariffs, taxes, and trade. Our discussion features Professors Timothy Kehoe and Christopher Phelan from the Department of Economics.
Who Evades Taxes? Americans underpay federal taxes every year. Underpayments are seen across business types, industries, taxpayer ages, and income groups. But some groups are less compliant than others. The presentation will break out these groups and discuss how the IRS estimates the tax gap, possible limitations of these estimates, implications for GDP, and the puzzle of stable compliance rates despite falling audit rates.
In this year's Jon Goldstein Memorial Lecture, we hear Costas Arkolakis (PhD 2007) of the Yale Department of Economics present his research, "Clean Growth," co-authored with Conor Walsh. "Clean Growth" develops an economic framework to analyze the regional and aggregate economic impact of the cost reductions in solar and wind across the world. Their investigation centers on the role of learning-by-doing in renewable energy and storage technologies, subsidies in renewables, and investments in the electricity grid. They find that adaption of renewables is rapid but its welfare impact depends heavily on how countries rely on the production and consumption of fossil fuels, and transmission grid investment.
In hindsight, Larry Summers' 2022 prediction that "we need five years of unemployment above 5 percent to contain inflation" seems wrong. But why? Tom Sargent argued that inflation and wage growth is determined by the expectations of future inflation. What's the role of monetary and fiscal policy for shaping these expectations? Can we add this period of decreasing inflation as one of Sargent’s Ends of Big Inflations?
Listen here for an answer to these questions and more.
In conversations about educational achievement, questions about what shapes our life outcomes persist. This event, with speakers Anusha Nath of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve and Aldo Rustichini of the University of Minnesota, attempts to identify whether genetics or life choices hold more weight in the direction of our lives.
This event will explore educational achievement and outcomes using two new working papers that employ significantly different data sources in an attempt to answer the same questions: What affects differences in educational attainment and income? At what point does race and gender matter?
For a video recording of this event, click here.
Professor Larry Jones has been a pillar of Minnesota Economics since he joined our faculty in the fall of 1999. Since then he has influenced and advised many students, and we were honored to host a conference in his honor.
See the full conference program and pictures from the October 27, 2023 event here.
In June president Biden signed the Debt Limit Bill, avoiding a U.S. Default. Before then, there were many questions about the state of the U.S. economy and fiscal policy, which our economic experts attempted to answer. Featuring panelists Chris Phelan, Marco Bassetto, and Cristina Arellano of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, and moderated by professor Kjetil Storesletten, this webinar includes a 10-minute presentation from each panelist, followed by a 30-minute Q&A with audience questions.
On Tuesday, April 18, 2023 Professor Catherine Hausman of the University of Michigan joined faculty from the Department of Economics to discuss the challenges in transitioning to clean energy and a carbon-neutral future.
Decarbonization policies are ramping up around the world to address the growing recognition that climate change is hurting the environment, the economy, and people's well-being. These decarbonization initiatives are addressing crucial market failures. At the same time, they face challenges. Professor Hausman will draw from her research on electric and gas utilities, on methane leaks, and on equity considerations to illustrate some of these challenges and to propose solutions to address them.