Williams College Economics

05/03/2026

We had a wonderful time and learned so much at PIER 2026 yesterday - our annual undergraduate economics research conference! We had an inspiring keynote talk by Caitlin Knowles Myers of Middlebury College, an alumni panel moderated by Raquel Jardim '27.5 and featuring Jillian Stallman '16, Helene Hall '18, and William Chen '19, and over a dozen student research presentations. We came away energized by all the great ideas we heard!

04/27/2026

We're excited to welcome folks next Sat May 2 to Williams College for PIER 2026 - an undergraduate economics research conference! Featuring student research presentations and a keynote by Caitlin Knowles Myers! Williams students are welcome to drop in to learn about what econ research can look like. See the conference program here: https://sites.google.com/williams.edu/pier/program

03/20/2026

Williams Economics was honored to welcome 2023 Nobel Laureate Professor Claudia Goldin (Harvard) to share her work on "Why Women Won." She shared fascinating trends and patterns, and ended by telling students, "Follow your curiosity. Don't worry about where it will take you!"

03/01/2026

We are excited to announce the upcoming PIER 2026 conference, celebrating undergrad econ research! The conference will be May 2; submissions due Mar 20. Submit here: https://sites.google.com/williams.edu/pier/submit
Our keynote speaker is the great Caitlin Myers!

01/19/2026

We learned a lot listening to our colleague Ken Kuttner on the latest EconoFact podcast, "The Risks of Politicizing the Federal Reserve." Check it out!

Ken Kuttner on how and why central banks are set up to be insulated from political pressure, and the economic consequences of a failure of central bank independence.

01/04/2026

We had a lovely time gathering at ASSA 2026 with Williams Econ folks from far and wide!

09/22/2025

Our colleague Ken Kuttner wrote this timely piece for Econofact, discussing the importance of central bank independence - and not just statutory independence, but how secure they really are from political interference.

Legal independence for central banks has increased around the world. But it is not a one-way road. What conditions lead to an erosion of autonomy?

07/21/2025

We loved to see this new article by William M Rodgers and Alice Kessens in The Review of Black Political Economy, celebrating and exploring the powerful work of our alum William E Spriggs using economics to explore questions related to race.

This paper describes several contributions of William E. Spriggs to the study of race.