Emory hosts landmark Econometric Society meeting, showcasing rising global clout

Emory University hosted one of the largest and most prestigious economic conferences in the world earlier this summer, but the achievement was about more than having top economics leaders visit the university’s campus.

Playing host to the 2026 North American Summer Meeting of the Econometric Society (NASMES) was an acknowledgement that in 10 years, Emory has grown its economics department into a heavyweight among elite institutions in the field, says Hashem Dezhbakhsh, Goodrich C. White Professor and chair of the Emory College Department of Economics.

In less than a decade, the department has grown from 16 faculty to 40 and from two academic programs to seven. This growth captured the attention of NASMES leadership and led to Emory hosting the international event, which was two years in the making, Dezhbakhsh says.  

The prestigious meeting was held at the Emory Conference Center Hotel in early June. It included lectures, semi-plenary sessions, parallel sessions, a reception, activities like bowling, and a gala dinner featuring a performance by the Vega Quartet.

Nearly 600 people attended from 38 countries and 299 institutions, Dezhbakhsh says. They included representatives from central banks in America and around the world, tech companies, and universities such as MIT, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, the London Business School, University of Tokyo, Peking University, the University of Vienna and Emory.

Emory University President-elect Christopher Augostini welcomed the participants during the first night reception and met with Econometric Society leadership. 

“By all measures, this turned out to be a fantastic conference,” Dezhbakhsh says. “Last year when we met (on Zoom) with the Econometric Society Board during the World Congress in Seoul, we promised to organize the best North American Econometric Society and a few smiled. The ES leadership has now indicated in public or via e-mail that we did indeed deliver on our promise.”

Nobu Kiyotaki, president of the Econometric Society, agrees.

“You have set the bar so high that it will be hard for others to match it,” Kiyotaki told attendees during a speech at the gala dinner.

Learning from current — and future — academic leaders

A standout feature of this year’s conference was the large number of graduate students who participated, Kiyotaki says. Emory raised funds to subsidize registration fees for graduate students, which resulted in as many as one-fifth of the presentations originating from the next generation of academic leaders.

“It is very important for me to develop the careers of graduate students,” Kiyotaki says, adding that he remembers how important conferences like this were to him as a young student. “Graduate students get stimulation from presenting and getting feedback.”

Another highlight of the conference was the gala, where leaders mixed and mingled to talk shop, exchange business information via QR codes and NFC smart cards, and network. 

Mustapha Akinkunmi, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Banks of Nigeria, says the NASMES conference at Emory brought together the best minds in economics. He was happy to represent the continent of Africa, although he hopes other African nations will participate in future conferences. 

Paula Tkac, executive vice president and research director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, a conference sponsor, says NASMES choosing Atlanta for the event helps raise the profile of Emory scholars and the university’s research environment. It also allowed thought leaders and experts to share ideas.

“The people here are presenting papers, they’re talking about work they’re already doing, they’re creating new projects they want to do, and they are pushing all the boundaries of economic research,” Tkac says. 

Hosting the NASMES conference was the second triumph for the Emory economics department in as many months. In April, the department hosted 2025 Nobel Prize-winning economist Peter Howitt, professor emeritus from Brown University, at White Hall auditorium.

Econometric Society Executive Director Lyn Hogan says the meeting at Emory was a huge success thanks to the efforts of the Emory team:  “We thought it would be great, but it exceeded expectations on all levels.”   

Dezhbakhsh also credits the success of the event to the Emory Conference Center staff, in particular Sharon Kimbell, director of conference planning, and Denise Thomas, director of group sales. The event took more than two years to pull together, resulting in an unparalleled conference that put Emory on the map for NASMES, they say. 

Photos by Jenni Girtman, Atlanta Event Photography.