Artificial Intelligence and the Macroeconomy Conference

The University at Albany, in collaboration with the Laboratory for Aggregate Economics and Finance (LAEF) at UC Santa Barbara, will host an academic conference on Artificial Intelligence and the Macroeconomy on April 24–25, 2026, at the University at Albany in Albany, New York. This conference will feature research at the frontier of how rapid advances in artificial intelligence are transforming aggregate economic dynamics.

The conference seeks to showcase research exploring how the rapid development and adoption of AI technologies are reshaping aggregate economic dynamics. What are the primary channels through which AI influences long-run productivity growth and labor market structures? How does the integration of machine learning into structural models improve our ability to forecast and simulate policy outcomes? These are among the many questions the conference will consider.

Submissions are invited from all fields of economics. Priority consideration will be given to papers that apply AI or machine learning methods to macroeconomic modeling, as well as to quantitative analyses of the aggregate economic impacts of AI. Contributions using novel datasets or computational approaches are particularly encouraged.

Working papers should be submitted via Conference Maker. The submission deadline is January 31, 2026, with decisions expected by early March 2026.

The conference is organized by Nick Pretnar (LAEF, UC Santa Barbara) and Ben Griffy (University at Albany). Hotel and travel accommodations will be provided for all invited participants.