Where is the 49th FAEA Annual Conference being held?

The conference is scheduled to take place in Quezon City, Philippines.

What is the primary focus of this annual conference?

The conference is an academic gathering centered on economic discourse, providing a platform for economists and researchers.

When does the conference take place?

The conference is scheduled for a single day in the fall.

49th FAEA Annual Conference

Name: 49th FAEA Annual Conference
Start: 2026-11-14T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-11-14T00:00:00Z
Location: Quezon City

Nov 14–14, 2026Quezon City, PhilippinesIn-person

Registration open

The 49th FAEA Annual Conference is an academic gathering focused on economic discourse, hosted in Quezon City, Philippines. This event serves as a significant platform for economists and researchers to present findings, discuss contemporary economic challenges, and explore policy implications relevant to the region and beyond. It underscores the ongoing commitment to fostering intellectual exchange within the economic community.

Committees & topics

Topics
The Digital Economy and Technological Diffusion · Artificial Intelligence and Productivity · Green Innovation and Sustainable Development · Innovation Ecosystems and Entrepreneurship · Governance, Regulatory Quality, and Competition Policy · Institutions and Reform Challenges · Public Sector Effectiveness and Accountability · Regional Cooperation and Policy Coordination

Why it matters

This conference holds importance for several reasons. Firstly, it brings together leading minds in economics, facilitating the dissemination of new research and ideas that can influence policy-making and academic trajectories. The discussions often touch upon critical economic issues, offering diverse perspectives on complex global and regional phenomena.

Secondly, the event's location in Quezon City, Philippines, highlights the growing role of Asian economies in global economic discourse. It provides a localized context for understanding broader economic trends and challenges, particularly those pertinent to developing and emerging markets. The insights shared can contribute to a more nuanced understanding of economic development paths and potential pitfalls.

Finally, the continuity of this annual conference, now in its 49th iteration, speaks to its established role in the academic calendar. It represents a sustained effort to build capacity, foster collaboration, and ensure that economic analysis remains relevant and responsive to evolving global conditions. For policymakers, academics, and students alike, it offers a crucial opportunity to engage with cutting-edge economic thought.

How to prepare

To effectively engage with the conference, participants should consider a multi-faceted preparation strategy. Reviewing past conference proceedings can offer insight into recurring themes and the academic rigor expected. Familiarity with key economic indicators and policy debates relevant to the Philippines will also be beneficial, given the event's location.

For those presenting, a clear and concise articulation of research findings, coupled with an understanding of potential counter-arguments, will be crucial. Engaging with the Model Diplomat lessons on topics such as "Engagement Strategies" and "Dynamic Analysis" can help refine presentation and discussion skills. Understanding "Hidden Stakeholders" in economic policy can also provide a richer context for interpreting various viewpoints.

Attendees should also consider the broader implications of economic theories and models discussed. Reflecting on how different economic paradigms intersect with real-world policy challenges, especially in the context of the host country, will enhance the learning experience. Preparing questions that delve into the practical applications and limitations of economic research will facilitate more meaningful interactions.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Philippines

As the host nation, the Philippines serves as a focal point for discussions, with local economic conditions and policy challenges often featuring prominently.

Role in topic

The Philippines provides the geographical and economic context for the conference, influencing the specific case studies and policy discussions that emerge. Its economic development trajectory, challenges, and opportunities are likely to be key themes.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

The Digital Economy and Technological Diffusion

The digital economy has expanded rapidly since the commercialization of the internet in the 1990s and the diffusion of mobile broadband in the 2000s, accelerating during the COVID-19 pandemic as e-commerce, remote work, and digital payments scaled worldwide. Yet diffusion has been uneven: a small group of advanced economies and Chinese firms dominate cloud infrastructure, semiconductors, and platform markets, while many developing countries face persistent gaps in connectivity, digital skills, and firm-level technology adoption. The OECD, World Bank, and UNCTAD have repeatedly documented a widening 'productivity divide' between frontier digital firms and laggards even within the same economy. Today the policy debate centers on how to broaden diffusion without entrenching dependence on a few foreign providers. The 2024 UN Global Digital Compact, EU Digital Markets Act, India's Digital Public Infrastructure model (Aadhaar, UPI, ONDC), and U.S.–China export controls on advanced chips have made digital industrial policy a core terrain of economic competition. Issues such as cross-border data flows, cloud sovereignty, interoperability standards, and affordable access to AI compute now sit at the intersection of trade, development, and security policy.

Key players

Artificial Intelligence and Productivity

Since the 2017 introduction of the transformer architecture and the 2022 release of large generative models, artificial intelligence has moved from a specialized research field to a general-purpose technology with potential effects across nearly every sector. Empirical studies by the IMF, OECD, and national productivity commissions suggest AI could lift labor productivity meaningfully over the next decade, but historical patterns from electricity and ICT show that gains often arrive with long lags and depend on complementary investments in skills, management, and data infrastructure. Early evidence indicates uneven adoption: large firms in advanced economies are scaling AI while SMEs and many emerging-market firms remain on the sidelines. The policy frontier now spans compute access, model governance, labor market adjustment, and intellectual property. The EU AI Act (2024), the U.S. AI Executive Orders and Bletchley/Seoul/Paris AI Safety Summits, and China's generative AI rules represent divergent regulatory approaches. Concerns about market concentration among foundation-model providers, energy demand from data centers, and the distributional consequences of automation make AI both a productivity opportunity and a governance challenge for economists advising public policy.

Key players

Green Innovation and Sustainable Development

Green innovation rose on the global agenda after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and gained urgency with the 2015 Paris Agreement and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Decarbonizing energy, transport, industry, and agriculture requires not only deployment of existing technologies—solar PV, wind, batteries, electric vehicles—but also breakthroughs in green hydrogen, carbon capture, sustainable fuels, and circular materials. Public R&D, carbon pricing, and targeted subsidies such as the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (2022), the EU Green Deal Industrial Plan, and China's clean-tech industrial policy have together driven steep cost declines in renewables but have also triggered trade tensions over subsidies, local-content rules, and critical-mineral supply chains. The central economic question is how to align innovation incentives with climate goals while ensuring a just transition and access for developing countries. Issues include the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, technology transfer obligations under the UNFCCC, financing for loss and damage, and competition for critical minerals in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. Sustainable development frameworks increasingly treat green innovation as both an environmental imperative and a strategy for industrial upgrading.

Key players

Innovation Ecosystems and Entrepreneurship

Modern innovation policy increasingly draws on the 'ecosystem' concept popularized by studies of Silicon Valley, Israel's high-tech cluster, and Taiwan's semiconductor industry, emphasizing the interaction of universities, venture capital, public research, skilled labor, and supportive regulation. Since the 2008 financial crisis, governments from Singapore to Chile to France have actively built startup ecosystems through public venture funds, accelerators, talent visas, and procurement programs. The global venture-capital boom of 2020–2021 and subsequent correction exposed both the dynamism and fragility of these ecosystems, with funding concentrated in a few hubs and sectors. Debate today centers on how middle-income and developing economies can foster productive entrepreneurship—not merely necessity-driven self-employment—while avoiding the policy failures of generic 'startup' subsidies. Issues include bankruptcy reform, equity-friendly taxation, university-industry linkages, access to growth-stage capital, and the role of diaspora networks. The geographic spread of unicorns to cities such as Bengaluru, São Paulo, Lagos, and Jakarta suggests that ecosystem-building can succeed outside traditional hubs when institutional conditions align.

Key players

Governance, Regulatory Quality, and Competition Policy

The post-1990s 'good governance' agenda, championed by the World Bank, OECD, and IMF, framed regulatory quality and competition policy as core determinants of long-run growth. The rise of digital platforms, the consolidation of corporate concentration in advanced economies, and post-pandemic supply-chain shocks have since reshaped the debate. Studies of declining business dynamism, rising markups, and 'superstar firms' have prompted renewed scrutiny of antitrust enforcement, with the EU Digital Markets Act, U.S. FTC and DOJ cases against major tech firms, and China's antitrust actions against domestic platforms marking a clear policy shift. For emerging and developing economies, the challenges are different but related: regulatory unpredictability, state-owned-enterprise dominance, weak competition authorities, and informal-sector distortions limit productivity. Regulatory impact assessment, independent agencies, and international regulatory cooperation through bodies like the ICN and OECD are increasingly seen as essential complements to trade and industrial policy. The political economy of regulatory capture remains a persistent concern across income levels.

Key players

Institutions and Reform Challenges

Since the influential work of North, Acemoglu, and Robinson, mainstream economics has placed institutions—property rights, contract enforcement, checks on executive power, and inclusive political settlements—at the heart of long-run development. Yet the experience of the last two decades has complicated the picture: rapid growth in countries with mixed institutional records, democratic backsliding in several middle-income economies, and the persistence of 'middle-income traps' have all challenged simple convergence narratives. The IMF, World Bank, and regional development banks have shifted toward more granular, sector-specific institutional diagnostics. Reform challenges today include judicial independence, fiscal rules, central-bank credibility, land and labor market regulation, and the governance of state-owned enterprises. Political constraints—polarization, fiscal populism, and weak state capacity—often block welfare-improving reforms, while external shocks from debt, climate, and geopolitics raise the costs of inaction. Comparative experience from Eastern Europe's EU accession, Latin America's reform cycles, and East Asia's developmental states offers contested lessons for current reformers.

Key players

Public Sector Effectiveness and Accountability

Concerns about public-sector performance have driven successive waves of reform: New Public Management in the 1980s–90s, results-based budgeting and e-government in the 2000s, and a current focus on state capacity, digital government, and evidence-based policymaking. Research by the OECD, the World Bank's Bureaucracy Lab, and academic programs such as Building State Capability at Harvard highlights wide cross-country variation in administrative effectiveness even at similar income levels, with measurable consequences for tax collection, public investment efficiency, and service delivery. The COVID-19 pandemic, climate adaptation needs, and the rollout of large industrial-policy programs have renewed attention to whether states can implement complex policies effectively. Accountability mechanisms—audit institutions, freedom of information, open data, anticorruption agencies, and parliamentary oversight—are central to this agenda, alongside civil-service reform, performance management, and the responsible use of AI in public administration. Trust in government, as tracked by the OECD and Edelman surveys, remains a binding constraint on reform in many democracies.

Key players

Regional Cooperation and Policy Coordination

Regional integration has been a persistent feature of the post-1945 global economy, from the European Communities to ASEAN, Mercosur, the African Union, and more recent arrangements such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA, 2021) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP, 2022). These arrangements pursue trade liberalization, regulatory harmonization, infrastructure connectivity, macroeconomic surveillance, and increasingly cooperation on digital, climate, and health policy. The fragmentation of the multilateral trade system after the WTO Appellate Body crisis and rising geoeconomic tensions have made regional frameworks more salient as second-best venues for coordination. Key challenges include overlapping memberships, weak enforcement, asymmetric capacity between members, and the politics of sovereignty. Recent issues such as carbon border measures, critical-mineral supply chains, AI governance, and migration management increasingly require cross-border coordination that purely national policies cannot deliver. The interplay between regional blocs and broader frameworks—G20, BRICS+, OECD—shapes how middle powers and developing economies position themselves in a more contested global order.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for 49th FAEA Annual Conference.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

India's 131st Amendment Bill

Trump's Legal Battles Impact 2026 Elections

Trump's Economic Reset

GOP Conservative Factions Clash Over Trump

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Policy Brief Writing

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Conflict Resolution

Philippines November 2026

By committee

Frequently asked questions

49th FAEA Annual Conference

Nov 14–14, 2026Quezon City, PhilippinesIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

Topics
The Digital Economy and Technological Diffusion · Artificial Intelligence and Productivity · Green Innovation and Sustainable Development · Innovation Ecosystems and Entrepreneurship · Governance, Regulatory Quality, and Competition Policy · Institutions and Reform Challenges · Public Sector Effectiveness and Accountability · Regional Cooperation and Policy Coordination

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Philippines

As the host nation, the Philippines serves as a focal point for discussions, with local economic conditions and policy challenges often featuring prominently.

Role in topic

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

The Digital Economy and Technological Diffusion

Key players

Artificial Intelligence and Productivity

Key players

Green Innovation and Sustainable Development

Key players

Innovation Ecosystems and Entrepreneurship

Key players

Governance, Regulatory Quality, and Competition Policy

Key players

Institutions and Reform Challenges

Key players

Public Sector Effectiveness and Accountability

Key players

Regional Cooperation and Policy Coordination

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for 49th FAEA Annual Conference.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

India's 131st Amendment Bill

Trump's Legal Battles Impact 2026 Elections

Trump's Economic Reset

GOP Conservative Factions Clash Over Trump

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Policy Brief Writing

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Conflict Resolution

Philippines November 2026

By committee

49th FAEA Annual Conference

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

The Digital Economy and Technological Diffusion

Artificial Intelligence and Productivity

Green Innovation and Sustainable Development

Innovation Ecosystems and Entrepreneurship

Governance, Regulatory Quality, and Competition Policy

Institutions and Reform Challenges

Public Sector Effectiveness and Accountability

Regional Cooperation and Policy Coordination

Resources

Joint Maritime Conference 2026

Asian Defense & Security Exhibition (ADAS) 2026

i4C.PH – Resilience Reimagined Summit 2026

The 17th Global Labour University International Conference

Frequently asked questions

49th FAEA Annual Conference

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

The Digital Economy and Technological Diffusion

Artificial Intelligence and Productivity

Green Innovation and Sustainable Development

Innovation Ecosystems and Entrepreneurship

Governance, Regulatory Quality, and Competition Policy

Institutions and Reform Challenges

Public Sector Effectiveness and Accountability

Regional Cooperation and Policy Coordination

Resources

Joint Maritime Conference 2026

Asian Defense & Security Exhibition (ADAS) 2026

i4C.PH – Resilience Reimagined Summit 2026

The 17th Global Labour University International Conference

Frequently asked questions

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

Related conferences

Joint Maritime Conference 2026

Asian Defense & Security Exhibition (ADAS) 2026

i4C.PH – Resilience Reimagined Summit 2026

The 17th Global Labour University International Conference

Frequently asked questions

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

Related conferences

Joint Maritime Conference 2026

Asian Defense & Security Exhibition (ADAS) 2026

i4C.PH – Resilience Reimagined Summit 2026

The 17th Global Labour University International Conference

Frequently asked questions