UEA 2026 Barcelona

15th European Meeting of the Urban Economics Association

May 8 - 9, 2026
CREI, Barcelona

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Call for Papers

Call for Papers

The Urban Economics Association (UEA) invites the submission of high-quality papers dealing with the economics of cities, housing, real estate, transportation, local public good provision, the spatial distribution of activities, economic geography, and urban or regional policy. We also invite expressions of interest in attending and serving as either a session chair or paper discussant. The Urban Economics Association seeks to promote participation and excellence in academic research in urban and regional economics.

The 2026 European Meeting of the UEA is scheduled to take place at Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional (CREI) in Barcelona, Spain on Friday the 8th and Saturday the 9th of May 2026. The conference will run from approximately 9:00 to 18:00 local time on both days and include a reception on Friday night and keynote lectures by Edward Glaeser (Harvard) and Monika Piazzesi (Stanford).

For more information, please visit the conference website at https://urbaneconomics.org/meetings/emuea2026.

Local Organizers: Giacomo Ponzetto, David Nagy, and Elisa Giannone (CREi)

Program Committee: Gilles Duranton (Wharton, Chair), Ferdinando Monte (Georgetown, Vice Chair), Pablo Fajgelbaum (UCLA, Past Chair), Christoph Albert (Collegio Carlo Alberto), Guillermo Alves (CAF Development Bank), Fabian Bald (European University Viadrina), Jan David Bakker (Bocconi), Johannes Boehm (Geneva Graduate Institute), Barthelemy Bonadio (NYU Abu Dhabi), Rainald Borck (Potsdam), Agostina Brinatti (Chicago Booth), Shoumitro Chatterjee (Johns Hopkins), Leonardo D'Amico (Chicago Booth), Xiang Ding (Georgetown), Maximilian Ehrlich (Bern), Anais Fabre (LMU Munich), Brian Greaney (Washington), Vernon Henderson (LSE), Marcel Henkel (Bern), Matthias Hoelzlein (Notre Dame), David Jinkins (Copenhagen), Wookun Kim (SMU) Cameron LaPoint (Yale), Antoine Levy (Berkeley) Pierre Mabille (INSEAD), Pierre Magontier (UPF), Florian Mayneris (Quebec), Eduardo Morales (Princeton), Erica Moszkowski (UBC Sauder), Abdoulaye Ndiaye (NYU), Augusto Ospital (LMU), Raphael Parchet (Università della Svizzera italiana), Fernanda Rojas-Ampuero (Wisconsin), Alexander Rothenberg (Syracuse), Peleg Samuels (Tel Aviv), Rosa Sanchis-Guarner (Barcelona), Christopher Severen (Philadelphia FRB), Tate Twinam (William & Mary), Stan Veuger (AEI), Etienne Wasmer (NYU Abu Dhabi), Yue Yu (Toronto), Miguel Zerecero (UC Irvine).

Student Prize Committee: Stephan Heblich (Toronto, Chair), Yanos Zylberberg (Bristol), Andrii Parkhomenko (USC), Ana Moreno-Maldonado (Mannheim), Joan Monras (Pompeu Fabra), Naomi Hausman (Hebrew University Jerusalem).

Submission: Please submit your paper or extended abstract through the online submission form at https://editorialexpress.com/conference/emuea2026/

We consider individual submissions as well as proposals for complete sessions.

Individual Papers: If accepted, individual papers will be arranged into sessions by the program committee and assigned discussants, typically drawn from presenters in the same session. To save these discussants from reviewing last-minute work, we typically only accept completed papers and discourage individual submissions of extended abstracts or incomplete work. We prefer papers that have not been presented at a previous European meeting of the UEA. While you may submit multiple papers, this is discouraged and we will accept at most one (there is no limit on the number of accepted papers on which you may appear as a co-author).

Proposed Sessions: Beyond submitting an individual paper, you can propose a complete session of 3 or 4 papers. Complete session proposals can deviate from the typical UEA format, requesting one of the following:

Standard: 3 or 4 papers, with 30 minutes per paper divided into ~20 min presentation, ~5 min discussion by a session presenter, and ~5 min Q&A
No discussants: 3 or 4 papers, with 30 minutes per paper divided into ~25 min presentation and ~5 min Q&A
Super session: 3 papers, with 40 minutes per paper divided into ~25 min presentation, ~10 min discussion by an invited discussant (i.e., not one of the session presenters), and ~5 min Q&A

Given the flexibility in format and pre-agreement by all session participants, complete sessions can include early-stage work (submitted as extended abstracts). We encourage including in proposed sessions submissions by researchers whose primary affiliation is in an allied field (e.g., labor, public, trade, development, etc.) but whose paper has clear and strong relevance to urban economists. If the session proposal is not accepted, the scientific committee will consider individual papers for inclusion in other sessions. To submit a session, please first submit each paper (or extended abstract) through the Conference Maker website and then propose your session via this form.

Interest in Attending: If you do not have a paper to submit, but would like to attend and serve as a session chair or paper discussant, please fill out this form.

Submission Deadline: Friday, January 9, 2026. You will be notified in mid-March whether your submission has been accepted for the conference.

UEA Student Prize: The UEA awards prizes for the best student papers presented at its conferences. Papers presented by full-time PhD students at the time of the conference are eligible for the student prize. Coauthors must also be full-time students, excluding any co-authors who are pre-docs or whose sole role is to facilitate access to data. Please email the chair of the student prize committee Stephan Heblich (Toronto), if your paper is eligible and you do NOT want to be considered for the student prize. Student papers and presentations will be evaluated by the student prize committee and the results will be announced at the conference. See past award winners at https://urbaneconomics.org/meetings/awards.html.