Washington Area Meeting of Economic Scientists (WAMES) 2026

Friday, April 10 & Saturday, April 11

FUSE Building, Rooms 1311 & 1312
GMU Arlington Campus
3401 Fairfax Dr, Arlington, VA 22201

 

 

The Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science (ICES) at George Mason University (GMU) is pleased to host the inaugural Washington Area Meeting of Economic Scientists (WAMES). The meeting will be held on the Arlington campus of George Mason University, in the newly constructed FUSE building. Talks will be held on Friday, April 10th and Saturday, April 11th, 2026. The meeting will include a poster-session for grad students as well as panels on political economy and AI. 

 


Program 

 

Abstracts

 

Poster Session Abstracts

 


Keynote Addresses

Cristina Bicchieri

Charles Holt
S. J. Patterson Harvie Professor of Social Thought and Comparative Ethics
University of Pennsylvania		 A. Willis Robertson Professor of Political Economy 
University of Virginia

***
Title of Talk: 
"Trust, Social Norms, and Poverty in America"

***
Title of Talk:
"Behavioral Game Theory and Intuitive Anomalies: Learning to Love the Logit"

(based on two chapters of a new book, Experimental Economics: Origins and Evolution, forthcoming Edward Elgar Publishing 2026)

 

 

Invited Speakers

Sheryl Ball
Virginia Tech
 David Cesarini
New York University
“Large Stakes Increase Risk Aversion, Arousal, and Attention to Safe Options in Risky Choice” "Pocketbook Politics: The Impact of Wealth on Political Preferences and Participation"
Shakun Datta Mago
University of Richmond
 Emel Filiz-Ozbay
University of Maryland
“Partisanship, Inequality, and Destructive Behavior: An Experiment with Republicans and Democrats” “Stochastic Choices in Giving: Theories and Experiments”
   
Boris Gershman
American University		 Arkadev Ghosh
Duke University
“Ancestry, Place, and Belief in Witchcraft as a Cause of Illness: Evidence from Contemporary Africa” "Industrialization and the Making of an Integrated Society: Evidence from US Marriage Networks"
Neeraja Gupta
University of Richmond
 David Klinowski
The College of William & Mary
"Can Temporary Affirmative Action Improve Representation?" “Gender-Equality Paradox in Competitiveness: Evidence and Explanations”
   
Michael Muthukrishna
London School of Economics 
& New York University
 Abhishek Ray
Costello College of Business, 
George Mason University
"Introducing the Centre for Human Progress" "Delegation and Blackboxes"
   
Tanner Regan
George Washington University		 Neslihan Uler
University of Maryland
"No Shame in My Name: Public Disclosure and Tax Compliance in a Low-Capacity State" "Same Prices, Different Choices: How Feasible Sets Shape Subsidy Response"
   

 

 

Panels

Day 1: AI

Erkut Ozbay
University of Maryland
(Organizer)		 Wei Ai
University of Maryland
(Panelist)		 Ran Shorrer
Pennsylvania State University
(Panelist)		 Tara Sinclair
George Washington University
(Panelist)
  • "Stochastic Choices in Giving: Theories and Experiments"

 

Day 2: Political Economy

Carlos Scartascini
Inter-American Development Bank
(Organizer)		 Shan Aman-Rana
University of Virginia
(Panelist)		 Juan Felipe Riaño
Georgetown University
(Panelist)		 Michael Best
Columbia University
(Panelist)
  • "Barriers to Fiscal Consolidation Reforms: The Role of Effort, Compliance, and Protests"
  • "Bureaucratic Deliberation and Performance: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Benin"
  • "Pay-to-Play: Campaign Contributions and Long-Term Distortions in Public Procurement"
  • "The Political Economy of Progressive Property Tax Reform: Evidence from Pakistan"

 

 

Venue


FUSE Building
3401 Fairfax Dr, Arlington, VA 22201
(Campus parking in Van Metre Garage via Founders Way from N Kirkwood Road)

Conference will be held in Room 1311/1312 on the 1st floor. Check-in to receive name badge and conference packet.

 

 

About ICES

The Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science (ICES) brings together researchers and students interested in using the methods of behavioral and experimental economics to address research questions from a variety of fields. Using both laboratory and field experiments, research at ICES has been conducted in areas including development, finance and political economy. The Center was founded in 2001 by Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith, and has been directed by Daniel Houser since 2009.

 

 

About GMU

George Mason University was founded in 1957. It started in a single building with an enrollment of 17 students. Today, Mason is the largest public research university in the Commonwealth of Virginia, including four Virginia campuses and one campus in Songdo, Korea. Mason has grown to more than 40,000 students from 130+ countries and all 50 states, and we are one of the most research-intensive universities in the country (categorized as R1 by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.)

 

 

About Economic Science Society (ESS)

The Economic Science Society (ESS) is dedicated to advancing the frontier of causal inference to ensure economic insights are grounded in scientific rigor. We promote methodological diversity, spanning the development of novel estimators for observational data, innovative experimental design and analysis, and the integration of AI into causal research. By prioritizing rigorous identification, ESS empowers evidence-based policy for the global good.