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 was held at Stanford University, August 21–23, 2025. It was organized by
Doug Bernheim (Stanford),
Ben Lockwood (Wharton, University of Pennsylvania), and
Dmitry Taubinsky (UC Berkeley).
The Boot Camp was made possible with generous support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Boettner Center for Retirement Research at the Wharton School.
The program featured lectures by the organizers and invited talks from leading scholars, including
Matt Gentzkow,
Botond Koszegi,
Olivia Mitchell, and
Matt Notowidigdo.
The keynote address was delivered by Dave Guarino. Please see below for the schedule of events and video recordings of selected sessions.
Agenda
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