About the 2025 Boot Camp
The Behavioral Public Economics Boot Camp is a PhD-level event designed to equip graduate students with a deep understanding of behavioral approaches to public economics. It draws connections across subfields like health, labor, household finance, development, and energy.
The 2025 Boot Camp will be held at Stanford University, August 21–23, 2025. This year’s organizers are
Doug Bernheim (Stanford),
Ben Lockwood (Wharton, University of Pennsylvania), and
Dmitry Taubinsky (UC Berkeley),
with generous support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Pension Research Council.
The program will feature lectures by the organizers and invited talks from leading scholars, including
Matt Gentzkow,
Botond Koszegi,
Olivia Mitchell, and
Matt Notowidigdo.
The keynote address will be delivered by Dave Guarino.
Agenda
All events will be held at Stanford's Landau Economics Building.
Thursday, August 21 – Foundations
9:00–9:30 Welcome, Overview, and Introductions (Bernheim, Lockwood, Taubinsky)
9:30–11:00 Behavioral Welfare Analysis (Bernheim)
11:00–11:30 Break
11:30–12:30 Optimal Taxation with Behavioral Biases (Lockwood)
12:30–1:30 Lunch
1:30–2:30 Optimal Taxation with Behavioral Biases: Part 2 (Lockwood)
2:30–3:00 Break
3:00–4:00 Tax Salience (Taubinsky)
4:00–4:30 Break
4:30–5:30 Non-Price Interventions and Nudges (Taubinsky)
5:30–6:00 Break
6:00–6:30 Reception
6:30 Dinner, w/ talk by external speaker Dave Guarino
Friday, August 22 – Applications
9:00–10:15 External presenter 1: Botond Kőszegi
10:15–10:30 Break
10:30–11:45 External presenter 2: Matthew Notowidigdo
11:45–1:00 Lunch
1:00–2:15 External presenter 3: Olivia Mitchell
2:15–2:40 Break
2:40–6:00 Student-faculty meetings (Bernheim, Lockwood, Taubinsky, external presenters)
6:00–6:30 Reception
6:30 Dinner
Saturday, August 23 – Applications
9:00–10:00 Recap and Q&A (Bernheim, Lockwood, Taubinsky)
10:00–10:15 Break
10:15–11:45 External presenter 4: Matthew Gentzkow
11:45–2:00 Lunch, research idea discussions, networking