Call for Papers: 15^th Young Economists Conference

The explosive technological change in the past years that spans from personal devices to production facilities, dominates media and expert discussions. While many European governments hope to lift their economies out of recession or near-recession through productivity strategies, the US economy was only kept out of recession by Artificial Intelligence and AI infrastructure investment with most other sectors contracting.  

At the same time, the newspaper headline-technologies - AI, blockchains and industrial robots - carry substantial risks of ecological destruction, accelerated resource depletion, deepening inequalities, but also of financial bubbles. Experts also debate their role in undermining democracy by enabling new qualities of misinformation, power concentration and job displacement. 

Now is the time to discuss the possibilities and risks of current technological trends for the life of working people and the unemployed, for growth and the ecology, and for inequalities or discrimination. 

The Young Economists Conference is a space to discuss these issues from a broad perspective, by not limiting contributions to single technologies or even the topic of technological change, but rather bringing together a broad range of critical research from economics, political sciences, sociology, international relations and the social sciences. We particularly encourage authors to submit contributions employing mixed-methods or qualitative approaches to address the issues outlined above. 

The Chamber of Labor Vienna and the Chamber of Labor Upper Austria will host the 15^th Young Economists Conference on September 17th and 18th, 2026 in Vienna, Austria. We invite researchers in the early stages of their career (Master, pre- or post-doc) from all professions, especially economics, political sciences and sociology, to submit their work. We especially encourage female and LGBTIQ* contributors as well as researchers of color and first generation academics to present at the conference. 

The conference language is English. The conference is free of charge, presenters will be reimbursed for train travel cost within Austria, accommodations are paid for. An outstanding contribution will be awarded the Eduard März Prize of €1,000.