FRONTIER RESEARCH, GLOBAL IMPACT.

UChicago's Hub for Economic Research and Analysis

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Announcing Wealth250

In 1776, Adam Smith asked what causes the wealth of nations - and changed the world. BFl marks the 250th anniversary of The Wealth of Nations with a yearlong series of events, essays, and scholarly inquiry into the foundation, frontier, and future of economics.

Latest Insights

The latest economic commentary from UChicago's leading scholars, fellows, and special guests. Featuring Research Briefs, Interactive Charts, Videos, Podcasts, and more.
Podcasts episode·Jun 9, 2026

How Should Parents Respond When Grades are Good, But Test Scores are Bad?

When a child brings home good grades but low standardized test scores, which signal should parents pay attention to? In this episode, Ariel Kalil of the UChicago Harris School of Public Policy discusses new research showing that parents lean heavily...
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Research Briefs·Jun 3, 2026

Does Scarcity Tax Parents’ Minds?

When financial scarcity prevents parents from reading with their children, the bottleneck is reduced attention rather than lessened self-control, driven by the felt experience of scarcity.
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Research Briefs·May 27, 2026

Consuming Values

When firms take controversial social stances, consumers most aligned with the stance increase their spending significantly, while those most opposed reduce theirs, although at a lower rate; these behaviors persist beyond the initial announcement.
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Podcasts episode·May 26, 2026

Tied to the Job: The Gains from Permanent Residency

When immigrant workers come to a country on a visa tied to a single employer, what is it worth to be free to switch jobs? In this episode, Chicago Booth economist Matt Notowidigdo discusses new research using Canadian administrative data...
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Latest Frontier Research

The BFI Working Paper Series disseminates current research in economics to encourage comments and discussion.
BFI Working Paper·Jun 10, 2026

The Enjoyment Paradox: College-Educated Mothers Invest More in Their Children’s Learning and Enjoy It Less

College-educated mothers invest more time in children’s learning than non-college-educated mothers, yet they report substantially lower enjoyment of those same activities. Using purpose-built survey data from 1,552 mothers of kindergarteners in Chicago Public Schools — the first dataset to measure...
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BFI Working Paper·Jun 8, 2026

How Small is Small? Non-linearities in Heterogeneous Agent Models

In plausibly calibrated heterogeneous-agent models, marginal propensities to consume (MPCs) are highly non-linear in wealth, falling sharply away from borrowing constraints. As a result, the aggregate consumption response to a fiscal transfer is strongly concave in its size: larger transfers...
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BFI Working Paper·Jun 8, 2026

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Field Experiments to Explore Novel Features of Parental Speech and Foster Child Development

Parents play a critical role in shaping children’s skills during the first years of life. Yet, identifying the contributors to richer learning environments remains difficult due to various unobservable factors. In this paper, we combine field experiments with AI to...
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Past Events

Jun 5
Academic Conferences·Jun 5, 2026, 9:00 AM·Encina Hall - 616 Jane Stanford Way C100, Oksenberg Room (3rd Floor), Stanford, CA 94305

2026 IOG Summer Conference

by Marianne Bertrand, Oeindrila Dube, James Fearon, Roger Myerson, Torsten Persson, and Francesco Trebbi
May 28
Academic Conferences·May 28, 2026, 12:00 AM

2026 Conference on the Economics of Crime and Justice

by Jeffrey Grogger, Tom Kirchmaier, and Stephen Machin
May 27
Academic Conferences·May 27, 2026, 8:00 AM·David Rubenstein Forum, 5th floor, 1201 E 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637

Modeling Climate-Economic Dynamics Workshop for Young Scholars

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Upcoming Events

Jun 14
Academic Conferences·Jun 14, 2026, 9:00 AM·University of Chicago

2026 Price Theory Summer Camp

Organizers: Luis Garicano and Erik Hurst
Jul 9
Academic Conferences·Jul 9, 2026, 9:00 AM·University of Chicago | David Rubenstein Forum | Room 601 1201 E 60th St, Chicago, IL 60637

2026 Early Career Behavioral Economics Conference

Organizers: Cuimin Ba, John Conlon, Luca Henkel, Alex Imas, Andreas Kraft, and Mattie Toma
Aug 20
Academic Conferences·Aug 20, 2026, 9:00 AM·University of Chicago | David Rubenstein Forum | Room 601 1201 E 60th St, Chicago, IL 60637

Economic Theory Conference XI

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About BFI

BFI serves as a hub for cutting-edge analysis and research across the entire University of Chicago economics community.
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About the Becker Friedman Institute

The Becker Friedman Institute for Economics (BFI) serves as a hub for cutting-edge analysis and research across the entire University of Chicago economics community, uniting researchers from the Booth School of Business, the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics, the...
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Our Legacy

Inspired by our namesakes, Nobel Laureates Gary Becker and Milton Friedman, who believed that economics research could help improve the world, BFI works with the Chicago Economics community to turn its evidence-based research into real-world impact.
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Our Team

University of Chicago faculty members and other accomplished economists set the goals and direction of the Institute.
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