Advances with Field Experiments Conference

Advances with Field Experiments (AFE) 2025 Conference

September 18-19, 2025

Location: The University of Chicago
5757 S. University Ave. 
Saieh Hall for Economics
Chicago, IL 60637

The Science of Philanthropy Initiative (SPI2025) and Advances with Field Experiments (AFE2025) conferences convened sequentially in 2025, on September 17-18 and September 18-19, respectively. Professor Michael Kremer was a shared keynote presenter for both conferences.

View the 2025 AFE conference mobile-friendly schedule. 

View the 2025 AFE conference schedule PDF. 

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

(Pictured above, from left to right)

Leonardo Bursztyn, The University of Chicago
Leonardo Bursztyn is the Saieh Family Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. He is also an Editor of the Journal of Political Economy, the co-director of the Becker Friedman Institute Political Economics Initiative, and the founder and director of the Normal Lab.

His research uses field experiments, often combined with observational data, to better understand how individuals' main economic decisions are shaped by their social environments. His work has examined educational, labor market, financial, consumption, and political decisions, both in developing and developed countries.

Leonardo is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a fellow at the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), and an affiliate at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and at the Pearson Institute. He is also the recipient of a 2016 Sloan Research Fellowship. He received his PhD in economics at Harvard University in 2010.

Zoe Cullen, Harvard Business School
Zoe Cullen graduated with a PhD from Stanford in Economics in 2016.  She worked from 2016-2018 as the Chief Economist for an Asian bank on the roll out of a digital transaction platform.  In 2018 she joined HBS as an Assistant Professor in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit.   Her interests are in the design of labor markets and the choices of employers and labor platforms that affect matters of public interest, such as pay transparency, pay inequality and criminal background screening.  She’s an NBER Affiliate in Labor Studies, an Associate Editor at the Journal of Political Economy and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow (2024-2026).

Michael Kremer, The University of Chicago, “Should Schools Install Air Filters? Evidence from Colombia”
Michael Kremer directs the Development Innovation Lab at the University of Chicago, where he is a University Professor. He is the joint winner of Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (Economics Nobel Prize) 2019, for the “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”. 

Kremer’s work focuses on innovation, including in education, health, water, finance, agriculture.  He has also worked extensively on how to design institutions to accelerate innovation, including through Advance Market Commitments (AMC) and social innovation funds. 

Kremer actively translates his academic work into real-world programs.  He helped to design an AMC for a pneumococcal vaccine. Subsequently three vaccines have been approved, and rolled out in 60 countries, saving an estimated 700,000 lives. As part of the Accelerating Health Technologies group, he conducted research and advised governments and international organizations on how to accelerate vaccination against COVID-19. His work on school-based deworming informed India’s national deworming day, which treats over 275 million children each year.  His work on safe drinking water led to the Dispensers for Safe Water Program, which reaches 4 million people via the NGO Evidence Action.  He is a co-founder of Precision Agriculture for Development, which leverages digital technology to improve productivity and incomes for small-holder farmers in developing countries.

Kremer is a co-founder and serves as Scientific Director of USAID's Development Innovation Ventures (DIV), an open, tiered, evidenced-based fund that supports innovation for development.

ORGANIZERS

John List, Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics, University of Chicago
Robert Metcalfe, Columbia University

AFE 2025 PRIZES

The inaugural AFE award committee was thrilled to announce three new paper prizes, created to encourage and recognize outstanding work by early-career scholars presenting at AFE, as well as overall creativity. An award committee selected the winners based on scientific quality and creativity, and prize recipients were recognized following dinner on Day 1. 

Louis Pasteur Prize

The Louis Pasteur Prize was jointly awarded to the best PhD student papers. 

• YoungJoo Jung (UIUC) "Generous to Men or Harsh to Women?Experimentally Unpacking Gender Bias in Lending"
• Molly Doruska (Cornell) "Flood Risk and Differential Firm Investment: Evidence from Dakar, Senegal"

Ronald Fisher Prize

The Ronald Fisher Prize was awarded to the best junior (Pre-Tenure) paper.

• Alexandra Schubert (UC Berkeley/Wesleyan) "Self-Detrimental Avoidance of Rest"

Marie Curie Prize

The Marie Curie Prize was awarded to the most creative paper. 

• Bo Cogwill (Columbia) "Clause and Effect: Theory and Field Experimental Evidence on Noncompete Clauses."

AFE 2025 PRESENTATIONS

Thank you to all organizers, presenters, and participants who made AFE 2025 a success! 

ABOUT AFE

Recent years have seen an enormous increase and interest in academic research using experimental methods in the field to address questions across a broad range of topics in economics. Moreover, businesses and governments across many countries around the world are starting to appreciate the power that field experiments can have on the design of products, services, and policies.

The Advances with Field Experiments 2025 Conference will gather a group of academics to present the best and most innovative new work using field experiments to address economic questions. Previous Advances with Field Experiments conferences convened in 2011, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, virtually in 2020, in 2022 and 2023. 

All types of field experiments, including natural, framed, and artefactual field experiments, are encouraged. In particular, we strongly encourage Ph.D. students to participate.

General questions? Please contact conference administrator Jamie Temmer.