About
BREAD organizes annual conferences outside the US and Europe to support development economics research in the host region. The 2026 edition in Mexico City features research presentations, a mentoring program for early-career LAC-based researchers, and structured engagement with the global BREAD network.
Call for Papers
We invite submissions of original research on any topic within development economics. Empirical, theoretical, and policy-relevant work are all welcome.
Eligibility
We encourage applications from scholars based in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as from researchers working on development questions in the region. That said, all research in development economics is relevant to the conference, and submissions from any region or topic within the field are welcome. Applications from PhD students, postdocs, and early-career faculty are particularly encouraged.
Session Types
- Full-length presentations — standard research presentations with discussants, open to all eligible researchers.
- Early-career sessions — shorter presentations designed for PhD students and junior faculty, with structured feedback from senior economists.
JDE Special Issue
Selected papers will be invited to submit to a Virtual Special Issue (VSI) at the Journal of Development Economics. The VSI is a closed call: eligibility is restricted to papers presented at the conference or otherwise selected for consideration from those submitted. Submissions go through the standard JDE peer-review process, with referees selected by the guest editors. Authors are free to decline the invitation if they prefer to submit elsewhere.
Mentoring Program
The mentoring program is open to junior researchers (PhD students or within 7 years of completing their PhD) who are based at institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean. We especially encourage applications from researchers at institutions where access to international research networks and senior mentorship in development economics is limited.
The goal is to expand BREAD's reach in the region and support scholars whose work would benefit most from structured feedback and engagement with the BREAD network.
Mentoring track applicants may submit a full paper, an extended abstract, a research design, or a pre-analysis plan.
Timeline
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Call for Papers announced | Week of May 18, 2026 |
| Submission deadline | Friday, June 19, 2026 (23:59 CST) |
| Decisions released | August 1, 2026 |
| Mentoring period | August – early October 2026 |
| Conference | October 23–24, 2026 |
Conference Program
All times CST (America/Mexico_City, UTC-6). Presenter underlined.
| Time | Session / paper | Authors | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08:45-08:50 | Welcome - Romero, Rasul, ITAM, CAF | ||
| 08:50-10:50 | S1. Human capital formation | ||
| Targeting Foundational Skills at Scale: Skill Specificity and Transfer | Andreas de Barros (University of California, Irvine), Theresa Lubozha | 50 min | |
| Dynamic Complementarities in Human Capital Formation: Long-Term Evidence from Preschool and School Feeding | Camila Galindo (Universidad de los Andes), Fabio Sanchez | 50 min | |
| Menstrual Stigma and Human Capital: Experimental Evidence from Madagascar | Duncan Webb (Nova School of Business and Economics), Karen Macours, Julieta Vera Rueda | 20 min | |
| 10:50-11:20 | Coffee (30 min) | ||
| 11:20-12:20 | S2. Early-career session I - Land, environment & firms | ||
| Land Subsidence: Environmental Risk in Housing Markets in Mexico City | Lucy Hackett (Banco de México), Carolina Rodríguez-Zamora | 20 min | |
| Environmental Regulation and Labor Reallocation: Evidence from a developing economy | Carlos Guilherme da Neves Cabrine (Fundação Getulio Vargas), Francisco Costa | 20 min | |
| Size-based business taxation in a high-informality context | Cristiano Costa Carvalho (PUC-Rio) | 20 min | |
| 12:20-13:40 | Lunch (1h20) | ||
| 13:40-15:10 | S3. Environmental regulation & adaptation | ||
| Floods: Measurement, Impacts, and Adaptation | Dev Patel (Brown University) | 50 min | |
| Environmental Regulation, Firm Export Dynamics, and Welfare: Evidence from Mexico’s Air-Quality Programs | Bonang Seoela (Indiana University) | 20 min | |
| Structural Change Through Environmental Regulation: Evidence from São Paulo's Fire Ban | Francisco Costa (FGV EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance), Francisco Luis Lima, Leticia Nunes | 20 min | |
| 15:10-15:40 | Coffee (30 min) | ||
| 15:40-17:30 | S4. Market power & allocation | ||
| Defensive Specialization: Theory and Evidence from Mexico's Retail Sector | Miguel Angel Talamas Marcos (Inter American Development Bank), Luis Cabral, Tommaso Bondi, Shreya Kankanhalli | 50 min | |
| Quality Standards, College Market Power, and the Allocation of Human Capital | Felipe Brugues (ITAM), Luis Armona, Rebecca De Simone, Sebastian Otero | 20 min | |
| Shifting Pathways: Anticipatory Responses to Preferential Admissions in Elite Colleges | Ana Paula Melo (Howard University), Ursula Mello, Alei Santos | 20 min | |
| The Market for Antibiotics: Sorting, Signals, and Regulation in Kenya | Anne Karing (University of Chicago), Michael Dinerstein, Younggeun Yoo | 20 min | |
| 17:30 | Conference dinner, on campus | ||
| Time | Session / paper | Authors | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09:00-11:00 | S5. Agriculture, growth & poverty | ||
| Trac(k)tors of Change: Monitoring, Tractor Mobility and Agricultural Mechanization in Kenya | Sophie Nottmeyer (Banco de México) | 50 min | |
| What Started China's Miracle? The View from Outer Space | Joel Ferguson (University of Wisconsin – Madison), Oliver Kim | 50 min | |
| The Sisyphean Pursuit of Evidence for Poverty Traps | Amol Singh Raswan (University of California - Berkeley), Dean Karlan, Christopher Udry | 20 min | |
| 11:00-11:30 | Coffee (30 min) | ||
| 11:30-12:30 | S6. Early-career session II - Human capital & social protection | ||
| Who Stays the Course? Early Classroom Rank and Educational Trajectories | Jesus Gutierrez Andrade (Lancaster University), Saurabh Singhal | 20 min | |
| The Price of Formality: The Role of Social Insurance in Labor Market Choices | Karla Hernandez (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana) | 20 min | |
| Timing Matters: Evidence from Government Benefit Schedules | Felipe Tomkowski (Insper), Filipe Correia, Marco Bonomo, Lucas Iten Teixeira | 20 min | |
| 12:30-13:50 | Lunch (1h20) | ||
| 13:50-15:30 | S7. Information, networks & markets | ||
| Nationwide Diffusion of Technology: Experimental Evidence from Multiple Networks | Deivy Houeix (Harvard University) | 50 min | |
| Screening Women Out? Pay Transparency in Job Postings | Amen Jalal (Harvard University) | 50 min | |
| 15:30-15:40 | Closing | ||
Venue
ITAM — Santa Teresa Campus
Both conference days will be held at ITAM.
Camino a Santa Teresa 930Col. Héroes de Padierna
Ciudad de México, 10700
México
Important: ITAM has two campuses. The conference is at the Santa Teresa campus (Camino a Santa Teresa 930, in the Pedregal area), not the Río Hondo campus (Río Hondo 1, in the San Ángel area).
Travel & Accommodation
Hotels
ITAM has negotiated special rates at the following hotels for conference participants. A discount code will be shared with registered participants closer to the conference dates.
- Camino Real Pedregal — closest to ITAM, but farthest from the city center and the main tourist areas of the city.
- Camino Real Polanco — Polanco; upscale neighborhood, ~25 minutes to ITAM.
- Flow Suites Polanco — Polanco; upscale neighborhood, ~25 minutes to ITAM.
- Flow Suites Condesa — Condesa; central, walkable neighborhood with restaurants and cafés, ~30 minutes to ITAM.
- Flow Suites WTC — central business district near Insurgentes, ~20 minutes to ITAM.
Airport
Mexico City now has two airports. Benito Juárez International (MEX) remains the main hub and handles the vast majority of international flights; MEX Terminal 1 to ITAM/Polanco is roughly 45–60 minutes by Uber, depending on traffic. Felipe Ángeles International (AIFA) is the newer airport and is considerably farther from the city.
Committee
- Ricardo Estrada (CAF)
- Claudio Ferraz (UBC)
- Verónica Frisancho (CAF)
- Thomas Fujiwara (Princeton)
- Marco Gonzalez-Navarro (UC Berkeley)
- Paulina Oliva (USC)
- Imran Rasul (UCL)
- Mauricio Romero (ITAM)
- Micaela Sviatschi (Princeton)
- Miguel Urquiola (Columbia)
Sponsors
Submit a Paper
Your data will be used solely for the purpose of reviewing submissions for BREAD Mexico 2026. Data will be retained until December 2026 and then deleted. Contact mtromero@itam.mx with questions.