AEW is a monthly applied economics workshop hosted by several Asian research universities and institutes. To accommodate different time zones, all seminars are held on Thursdays from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. or 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Tokyo Time (i.e., 8:30-10:30 a.m. or 3:00-5:00 p.m. for Taipei, Hong Kong, and Singapore).
The typical AEW audience includes faculty members and graduate students from the sponsoring institutions (UTokyo, NTU Taiwan, NUS, HKUST, Academia Sinica, HKU, and Hitotsubashi). Approximately one-fifth of the audience is from other places. All attendees will need to register in advance.
After the keynote seminar (75 minutes, including Q&A), the presenter of the AEW discussion paper, pre-selected by the keynote speaker, will deliver a 20-minute presentation, followed by a 10-minute open-floor discussion. We are flexible about the format in which the keynote speaker feels comfortable providing feedback. Some keynote speakers made a formal discussion voluntarily. Others joined the audience to offer informal comments.
The faculty and Ph.D. candidates of the sponsoring institutes can sign up for a 20-minute 1-1 meeting with the keynote speaker. The number of 1–1 meetings ranges between 3 and 11, determined by demand and supply. In the event of excess demand, we prioritize seats for full-time junior faculty and Ph.D. candidates on the job market who submit a paper to the AEW discussion session.
Chief Moderator: Jui-Chung Ray Yang (NTU-TW)
08:30 AM - 09:45 AM (09:30 AM - 10:45 AM Tokyo Time)
Keynote speech: “Paving the Swamp: Consequences of Land Use Regulation Under the Clean Water Act,” (joint with Hannah Druckenmiller and Charles A. Taylor)
09:45 AM - 10:15 AM (10:45 AM - 11:15 AM Tokyo Time)
Paper discussion: “The Impact of Municipal Mergers on Pollution Control Evidence from River Pollution in Japan," by Kazuki Motohashi, and Michiyoshi Toya
Theme: Environmental, Energy (Submission deadline: January 04, 2026)
Submit your paper / sign up for a 1:1 meeting here.
Register for the workshop here.
Theme: Labor, Public, Experimental (Submission deadline: February 01, 2026)
Submit your paper / sign up for a 1:1 meeting here.
Register for the workshop here.
Theme: Labor, Public, Experimental (Submission deadline: March 22, 2026)
Submit your paper / sign up for a 1:1 meeting here.
Register for the workshop here.
The webinars are held online and last 105 minutes.
The keynote presentations will be recorded and available on the web page a few days after. Please note that you may be recorded if you activate your video or speak.
If you have feedback or suggestions, please e-mail the program manager or one of the following organizers.
Stacey Chen (University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Public Policy, since 2020),
Ching-I Huang, Chung-Ying Lee, Elliott Fan, Joseph Tao-Yi Wang (National Taiwan University, since 2020),
Pinchuan Ong, Yi Fan, Jessica Pan (National University of Singapore, since 2020),
Robin Gong, Sangyoon Park, Albert Park (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, since 2020),
John Klopfer, Gedeon Lim (Hong Kong University, since 2021), and
Tat-How Teh (Nanyang Technological University, since 2023).
Program manager: Yu-Hsin Ho (National Taiwan University) and Xuemeng Yao (University of Tokyo)
Special thanks to several partners supporting this platform in the past, including Tzu-Ting Yang (Academia Sinica, from 2021 to 2025) and Masayuki Sawada, Shoya Ishimaru (Hitotsubashi University, from 2022 to 2025).