Machine Learning in Economics Summer Institute 2024 (MLESI24)

Announcing MLESI '24!

We are excited to welcome this year's cohort for the Machine Learning in Economics Summer Institute, which will be held in Chicago, August 1-7, 2024. Applications for the 2024 Institute can be found here.

Program Description:

Every August, CAAI hosts the Machine Learning in Economics Summer Institute (MLESI), organized by Jens Ludwig (Chicago Harris), Sendhil Mullainathan (Chicago Booth), Jann Spiess (Stanford GSB), Sanjog Misra (Chicago Booth) and Ashesh Rambachan (MIT). Modeled after similar programs in behavioral economics, the Institute brings together leading researchers with advanced graduate students and junior faculty to build community and push forward cutting-edge research ideas. Past visiting faculty included Susan Athey, Guido Imbens, Annie Liang, Manish Raghavan, Stefan Wager, and many others bridging computer science, statistics, and economics. This year's list of faculty is forthcoming. 

Goal of the program:

1. to introduce researchers to the new methods and data used in machine learning (e.g., supervised and unsupervised learning algorithms, machine vision, text analysis), and how they relate to longstanding questions around causal inference, experimental design, fairness and bias, and econometric theory; and

2. to build intuitions for how these methods can open up new questions for economists in fields like macroeconomics, behavioral science, health, development, public, labor, or applied microeconomics generally.

Format:
MLESI24 will be held in-person on the University of Chicago campus at the Rubenstein Forum. This year, the program for participating students will consist of two parts: the first part, held August 1–5, will consist of lectures, panel discussions, tutorials, office hours, and social activities. The second part, held August 6–7, will have students attend the two-day Machine Learning in Economics Summer Conference (MLESC) with talks on current research topics. Participants are expected to attend the August 1–7 program full-time and in person.

The presenters for MLESI 2024 include:

• Hamsa Bastani
• Jon Kolstad
• Jens Ludwig
• Pamela Miskhin 
• Sanjog Misra
• Sendhil Mullainathan
• Ashesh Rambachan
• Jann Spiess
• Keyon Vafa
• David Yanigazawa-Drott

Eligibility:

Participation in the full program will be by application, and limited to around 30 Ph.D. students andpost-docs who have completed their Ph.D. program in 2022 or later. Candidates in economics and related disciplines (e.g., computer science, statistics, etc.) who have a strong interest and advanced training in formal economics are eligible.  

Please contact Lauren Doan if you have any questions.

The last two days of the Institute will feature the first Machine Learning in Economics Summer Conference (MLESC). All participants in MLESI are expected to attend the conference, which will feature talks by researchers working on using machine learning methods to tackle existing questions and open new directions in a diverse set of fields.