GESDA Anticipation Workshop - Future of Economics Research

Morning

Sophie Gilbert

This workshop is set to explore four key themes shaping economics’ evolution over the next 5-25 years. “Advancing Economic Theory” examines how mathematical frameworks face challenges and potential breakthroughs. “Economics of Knowledge” investigates how AI and vast data repositories necessitate new theoretical approaches beyond traditional frameworks. “Empirical Economics” focuses on developing mechanisms to translate economic models into effective policy change, emphasizing evidence-based research to ensure real-world relevance. “Ecological Economics” explores how climate change and ecological factors challenge fundamental economic definitions by re-positioning the human experience in economic models.

Jayati Ghosh

Traditional economic models have long assumed rational decision-making by individuals and organizations. However, behavioral economics integrates psychological insights to explain how cognitive biases, social preferences, and limited willpower systematically affect economic decisions. This field has revolutionized policy approaches through “nudges” and choice architecture, challenging fundamental assumptions about market efficiency. As neuroscience, AI, and big data analytics advance, behavioral economics stands at a crucial intersection of multiple disciplines. Here we will explore how behavioral economics is reshaping economic theory, what methodological innovations are emerging, and what transformative insights might emerge over the next 5, 10, and 25 years that could fundamentally alter how we understand and influence economic behavior at individual and societal levels.

Sandro Ambühl

Since the development of the internet, the attempt to understanding the economics of knowledge – including frameworks for intellectual property (IP), commons, and open-source philosophies – has pushed the need for the development of new economic theories. Furthermore, the economics of technology, initially studied as the digital economy, is developing rapidly, opening up new fields of exploration. Here we will combine these shifts in discussing the big questions of understanding the economics of knowledge in the age of artificial intelligence and vast data repositories, and how this field could develop over the next 5, 10 and 25 years.

Nick Srnicek

The challenge of how to bring about effective policy change will require new economic mechanisms to bridge the gap between economic models and what is happening on the ground. Evidence-based research addressing, e.g., the role of women in artificial intelligence (AI), digital entrepreneurship in marginalised communities, and the future of work is re-defining economic development independent of GDP, but rather striving to reduce inequality. How will the study of economics will be influenced by other disciplines in the development of these new economic mechanisms? Here we will discuss factors anticipated to be important for the future trajectory of economics and its relevance to real-world situations.

Erika Kraemer-Mbula

In an era of rapid climate change, understanding how factors such as biodiversity, changing ecologies and subsequent resource availability will impact future societies and individuals is becoming more and more pressing. By re-positioning the human experience into economic models and practice, developments in this field are posing provocative questions and challenging the very basic definitions that economic theory is based upon. Based on current trajectories, what shifts in the theory and practice of economics are expected to occur over the next 5, 10 and 25 years due to breakthroughs in this field?

Robert Costanza

GESDA Anticipation Workshop - Future of Economics Research