Banca d’Italia, Collegio Carlo Alberto and Norges Bank will host a joint conference on new modeling approaches and novel empirical evidence on heterogeneity in the behaviour of firms, households and financial intermediaries. The meeting will bring together economists from academia and central banks focused on using microdata in empirical work and model estimation to understand how banking activities, capital markets, and balance-sheet choices by firms and households shape the economy. Special attention will be paid to papers with relevance to current policy questions. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:

• Households’ and firms’ expectation formation mechanisms
• Household debt and consumption spending decisions
• Monetary policy, inflation, and inequality
• Transmission channels of monetary policy
• Lending by banks and non-banks
• Secular trends in lending: creditless recovery, banking deserts
• Firm financing and investment spending decisions

Viral Acharya (NYU-Stern), Olivier Coibion (University of Texas, Austin), Mariassunta Giannetti (Stockholm School of Economics), and Steven Ongena (University of Zurich) are confirmed keynote speakers for the event.

Papers for submission should be sent to conference@norges-bank.no by May 15th, 2024. Authors of accepted papers will be notified by June 15th. A discussant will be assigned to each presenter. Travel and accommodation expenses will be reimbursed for academic participants, subject to a cap. All presentations will take place in-person at Norges Bank, Bankplassen 2, Oslo.

Program Committee: Margherita Borella (CeRP-Collegio Carlo Alberto), Margherita Bottero (Banca d’Italia), Francesco Furlanetto (Norges Bank), Karolis Liaudinskas (Norges Bank), Stefano Neri (Banca d’Italia), Massimiliano Pisani (Banca d’Italia), Federico Ravenna (Collegio Carlo Alberto)