IMF Conference

 CALL FOR PAPERS

The conference will focus on how trade, investment, finance, and regulation are deployed as instruments of power in a shifting global order. It seeks theoretical and empirical papers considering when interdependence creates leverage or vulnerability, and how industrial policy, supply-chain security, and technological capabilities reshape statecraft and macroeconomic outcomes.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Economic statecraft and national security
• Sanctions, tariffs, and coercive trade instruments
• Critical supply chains and economic dependencies
• Infrastructure diplomacy and development finance
• The role of central banks and sovereign wealth funds in global strategy
• Competition over key technologies (digital finance, AI, semiconductors, green energy)
• Geoeconomics of climate policy
• Comparative and historical perspectives on economic coercion
• Theoretical frameworks for modeling geoeconomic behavior
• Regional perspectives: US, China, EU, India, Latin America and beyond

Submissions and logistics:

Please upload your submissions in Adobe PDF format to: IMFER 2026 Summer Conference Call for Papers. Selected papers will be considered for publication in a special issue of the IMF Economic Review guest-edited by Laura Alfaro and Yan Bai. Along with your submission, please indicate whether you are interested in contributing to this issue. Papers that are not being submitted to the Review are also welcome. Submission deadline: January 31, 2026

Funding:

The sponsors expect to fund travel and accommodation for presenters (one author per paper) and discussants, subject to budget constraints.

Contact:

Questions about submissions or logistics: IMFERSummerconf@imf.org

Organizing Committee:

Laura Alfaro (IADB and Guest Editor, IMF Economic Review)
Yan Bai (University of Rochester and Guest Editor, IMF Economic Review)
Emine Boz (IMF and Co-Editor, IMF Economic Review)
Jesús Fernández-Villaverde (University of Pennsylvania and Editor, IMF Economic Review)
Nuwat Nookhwun (Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research, Section Head)
Adrian Peralta-Alva (IMF)
Nada Wasi (Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research, Research Director)

Conference Coordinators:
Luisa Calixto and Julia Grisard (IMF)