CALL FOR PAPERS - 15th PhD-Student Workshop on Industrial and Public Economics (WIPE)

WIPE aims to be an academic meeting for PhD students to interact with other young scholars, postdoc, and senior researchers to exchange experiences, research ideas, ongoing projects, and future research activities in the fields of Industrial Organization and Public Economics. WIPE will include about 18-20 presentations, each of them being discussed by a participant at the workshop, and will also host a keynote lecture by Michelle Sovinsky (University of Mannheim, Germany). Former keynote speakers at WIPE have been: Bettina Klaus (University of Lausanne, Switzerland), Philip McCann (The University of Manchester), Andrés Carvajal (University of California), Inés Macho (UAB and BSE), Mar Reguant (Northwestern University), Natalia Fabra (UC3M), Kai Konrad (Max Planck Institute), Mark Armstrong (University of Oxford), Alessandro Gavazza (LSE), Luis Cabral (NYU), Jose Luis Moraga-Gonzalez (VU Amsterdam), Tommaso Valletti (Imperial College London), Xavier Vives (IESE), and Massimo Filippini (ETH Zürich).

WIPE is organized by the Research Center on Economics and Sustainability (ECO-SOS) is a research center created in 2010 as CREIP (Research Center in Industrial and Public Economics), that recently moved to sustainability issues, in line with research interests of its members. Specifically, ECO-SOS studies the connection between sustainability and the following areas of interest: environmental and climate economics, health economics, regional and urban economics, education and labor market business and innovation, energy and natural resources, industrial organization, economic policy, game theory and environmental conflicts, and transport and tourism.

Keynote Speaker

Michelle Sovinsky is a Professor of Economics at the University of Mannheim, a research fellow of the Center of Economic Policy Research (CEPR), an associate of the University of Chicago Becker Friedman Institute, and a member of the Economic Advisory Board for Competition Policy for the European Commission. She received her Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Virginia and has been on the faculty in the United States (at the University of Southern California) and in Europe and has held visiting professorships in the US, Europe, and Australia. Her research covers a wide range of topics including individual decision making under limited information and the implications for market power, competition policy, and markets for illicit products. Her research has implications for the design of public health policy and competition policy and has been published in the American Economic Review, Econometrica, and the Journal of the European Economics Association.

WIPE Awards

During the 15th WIPE the Department of Economics will award the young researcher presenting the best paper of the workshop. Furthermore, the Chair for the Promotion of Firm Innovation will award the young researcher presenting the best paper on R&D and innovation. Each prize consists on a EUR 600 cash award.

The decision will be taken by a jury composed by members designed by the Department of Economics and the Organizing Committee of the WIPE, and the verdict will be announced at the end of the workshop. Note that in exceptional and duly justified cases, the jury may award two papers, and the prize will be divided equally.

Submission of papers

Full papers should be submitted electronically in PDF format to eco-sos@urv.cat by November 30th 2026. The front page of the document should include the title, authors, affiliations, contact details, and a short abstract. The deadline for notification of accepted papers is December 18th 2026.

Location and Travelling

Located right in the centre of the Costa Daurada and at less than one hour from Barcelona, Reus is a medium-sized city well known for its shopping, modernist heritage and its close relationship to the architect Antoni Gaudí.

Accommodation

Participants are expected to arrange their own accommodation. Among the hotels of the following list, Reus Park Hotel is the closest to the venue of the conference (5-minute walk) and Hotel Centre Reus and NH Hotel are inside a reasonable walking distance:

Hotel NH Ciutat de Reus ****
http://www.nh-hotels.com 
Hotel Centre Reus ***
http://hotelcentrereus.com/home/ 
Hotel Reus Park ***
http://en.hotelreuspark.com/ 

Registration and fees

All presenters must be PhD students. Papers must widely fit in the fields of Industrial Organization and Public Economics. There is a non-refundable fee of EUR 150 and attendants should cover their own travel expenses. Fee covers coffee breaks, lunch and a gala dinner, as well as full access of all activities of the workshop.

Scientific Committee

Local Organising Committee

Email: eco-sos@urv.cat

Web: https://www.eco-sos.urv.cat

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