Economics of AI Conference
Barcelona · February 12-13, 2026
What are the economic consequences of rapid advances in Artificial Intelligence? Will it displace workers and erode privacy, or help tackle climate change and reduce inequalities across the globe? Will it increase market concentration or spur entry and competition? These are important questions yet much is missed on how organizational channels will facilitate these effects — how AI shifts decision-making, incentives, skills, and the design of work in firms and public institutions—and how those micro-level changes translate into productivity, inequality, and market dynamics. What will our organizations and business models look like?
Under the belief that we must rely on solid research findings to inform the debate around Artificial Intelligence, IESE Business School (Barcelona, Spain) is excited to announce the first edition of its second conference on “The Economics of Artificial Intelligence (AI)” in its Barcelona campus on February 12th, 2026.
This conference will aim to bring together scholars with diverse perspectives and develop a research community interested in the study of the impact of artificial intelligence on the inner working of organizations, the economy and, most generally, on society. The conference will provide opportunities for research discussions and interactions inside and outside the seminar room. The conference covers a broad range of topics in the economics of AI and its intersection with other fields.
February, 12th 2026
IESE North Campus
8:30: Registration
9:00: Session 1: LLMs and AI Markets
The Economics of LLMs: Token Allocation, Fine-Tuning and Optimal Pricing
- Alex Smolin (Toulousse School of Economics)
The Economics of Ever-Larger Large Language Models
- Zach Brown (MIT FutureTech)
Is AI Trained on Public Money? Evidence from US Data Centers
- Roxana Mihet (University of Lausanne)
11:00: Coffee Break
11:30: Session 2: Human-AI Interaction
Variance-Aware LLM Annotation for Strategy Research
- Alfonso Gambardella (Bocconi)
AI in the Lab: AlphaFold2’s Impacts on Human-Produced Knowledge
- Jiarui (Jerry) Qian (University of Virginia)
1300: Lunch
14:00: Session 3: AI Diffusion
Social Spillovers and AI Adoption: Evidence from Denmark
- Simon Bunel (INSEAD)
Organizational Technology Ladders: Remote Work and Generative AI Adoption
- Gregor Schubert (UCLA)
15:30: Coffee Break
16:00: Session 4: Labor Markets
AI Is Already Eroding Wages: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Occupational Exposure
- Mireia Gine (IESE)
Generative AI, Expertise and Effective Labor Supply
- Guy Lichtinger (Harvard University)
17:30: Break
18:00: Keynote AULA MAGNA: RAFFAELLA SADUN (HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL)
19:30: Cocktail
20:30: Dinner (Speakers only)
February, 13th 2026
IESE North Campus
9:00: Session 5: Information
GenAI Misinformation, Trust, and News Consumption: Evidence from a Field Experiment
- Ruben Durante (NUS)
Machine Translation Wikipedia
- Luis Aguiar (University of Zurich)
10:30: Coffee Break
11:00: Session 6: Market Structure and Competition
AI Safety and Competition
- Doh Shin Jeon (Toulouse School of Economics)
Generative AI and Market Structure in Open Source Software: Evidence from GitHub Copilot
- Michail Batikas (Nova School of Business and Economics)
12:30: Lunch and Adjourn
December 1, 2025: Deadline for submission of proposals.
December 15, 2025: Response to authors of accepted papers.
- The official language of the Conference is English.
- Send proposals using the paper submission platform.
Further Inquiries
Logistical questions about this conference can be addressed to Esther Ribes (eribes@iese.edu), and academic questions to Professor Ricard Gil (rgils@iese.edu).
* The adoption and diffusion of AI
* AI and innovation
* AI and firm creation/destruction
* AI and business economics (internal organization, strategy & business models)
* AI and its impact on macroeconomic outcomes and inequality
* AI and its impact on education, health and healthcare
* How AI might impact the labor market (including via automation) and discrimination
* The use of AI to improve decision-making
* The use of machine learning in economics
* Market design with AI
* The regulation of AI, and its impact on government policy
* Privacy and security of AI, and its impact on the economics of national security
Location
The Economics of AI Conference, will take place on the Barcelona North Campus of IESE Business School.
C/ Arnús i Gari 3-7
08034 Barcelona
+34 93 253 42 00
Accomodation
IESE is a dynamic community of scholars and practitioners who will welcome you to Barcelona, a traditional and welcoming Mediterranean city. It is a city with a great number of tourist attractions and a friendly atmosphere that will offer conference participants and their families plenty of opportunities to enjoy their stay here, over and above the academic program we are preparing for you. Accommodations options near IESE:
- Sansi Pedralbes → 5-minute walk from IESE
Av. Pearson 1-3, 08034 Barcelona - Torre Girona Residence Halls → 10-minute walk from IESE
Passeig dels Til·lers, 19 , 08034 Barcelona - AC Victoria Suites → 15-minute walk from IESE
C/ Beltrán i Ròzpide, 7-9 (before Av. Pedralbes, 16), 08034 Barcelona - Abba Garden Hotel → 20-minute walk from IESE
C/ Santa Rosa, 33 , 08950 Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona - ·Upper Diagonal → 15-minute walk from IESE
Passeig de Manuel Girona, 7, 08034 Barcelona - Arenas Atiram → 11-minute car from IESE
C/ Capitán Arenas, 20, 08035 Barcelona
