Past EconCS Seminars

1. A Simple, Statistically Robust Test of Discrimination & 2. Distortion of AI alignment: Does preference optimization optimize for preferences?

December 12, 2025

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1:30PM - 3:00PM EST

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SEC LL2.221

In Person

Speaker 1: Johann Gaebler (Harvard University) Title 1: A Simple, Statistically Robust Test of Discrimination Abstract 1: In observational studies of discrimination, the most common statistical approaches consider either the rate at which decisions are...

Natural Centralization in Decentralized Finance (joint with Adrian Casillas and Maryam Farboodi)

December 5, 2025

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1:30PM - 2:30PM EST

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SEC LL2.221

In Person

Time & Location: Friday, December 5, 1:30pm - 2:30pm at SEC LL 2.221 Title: Natural Centralization in Decentralized Finance (joint with Adrian Casillas and Maryam Farboodi) Abstract: Can centralization arise absent barriers to entry? We confront this...

(1) Distribution over rewards for pluralistic AI alignment & (2) Data Reliability Scoring

November 21, 2025

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1:30PM - 2:30PM EST

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SEC LL2.221

In Person

Time & Location: Friday, November 21, 1:30pm - 2:30pm at SEC LL 2.221 Speaker 1: Itai Shapira (Harvard University) Title 1: Dis tribution over rewards for pluralistic AI alignment Abstract 1: Current alignment pipelines based on human feedback, typically...

Recommendations in high-stakes settings

November 14, 2025

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1:30PM - 2:30PM EST

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SEC LL2.221

In Person

Nikhil Garg (Cornell Tech) Recommendations in high-stakes settings Recommendation and search systems are now used in high-stakes settings, including to help find jobs, schools, and partners. Building public interest recommender systems in such settings...

The Trilemma of Truth in Large Language Models

November 7, 2025

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1:30PM - 2:30PM EST

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SEC LL2.221

In Person

Tina Eliassi-Rad (Northeastern) The Trilemma of Truth in Large Language Models In our human-AI society, we often attribute human characteristics to large language models (LLMs) and claim that they "know" things. LLMs have an internal probabilistic...

Kehang Zhu (Harvard): TBA

October 31, 2025

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1:30PM - 2:30PM EDT

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SEC LL2.221

In Person

Kehang Zhu (Harvard): TBA

Cardinal-Utility Matching Markets: Pricing is Intractability, but Nash Bargaining Works!

October 24, 2025

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1:30PM - 2:30PM EDT

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SEC LL2.221

In Person

Vijay Vazirani (UC Irvine) Cardinal-Utility Matching Markets: Pricing is Intractability, but Nash Bargaining Works! For a mechanism to be truly impactful, it must combine strong game-theoretic properties with computational efficiency -- a classic example...

When Experimental Economics Meets Large Language Models: Evidence-based Tactics

October 17, 2025

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1:30PM - 2:30PM EDT

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SEC LL2.221

In Person

Tracy Liu (Tsinghua University) When Experimental Economics Meets Large Language Models: Evidence-based Tactics Advancements in large language models (LLMs) have sparked a growing interest in measuring and understanding their behavior through experimental...

The Impossibility of Transparent and Decentralized DeFi Trading & Assortment Optimization for Patient-Provider Matching

October 10, 2025

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1:30PM - 3:00PM EDT

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SEC LL2.221

In Person

Hanna Halaburda (NYU) - 60 min The Impossibility of Transparent and Decentralized DeFi Trading Decentralized finance (DeFi) aspires to replace traditional intermediaries with transparent, decentralized markets. Yet we show that transparency itself creates...

Calibrated Coarsening: Designing Information for AI-Assisted Decisions

October 3, 2025

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1:30PM - 2:30PM EDT

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SEC LL2.221

In Person

Ruru Hoong (Harvard) Artificial intelligence (AI) signals are increasingly deployed as human decision-making aids across many critical applications, but human cognitive biases can prevent them from improving outcomes. We propose calibrated coarsening...

Metritocracy: Representative Metrics for Lite Benchmarks & Learning to Coordinate Bidders in Non-Truthful Auctions

September 26, 2025

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1:30PM - 2:30PM EDT

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SEC LL2.221

In Person

Speaker 1: Shirley Zhang (Harvard University) Title: Metritocracy: Representative Metrics for Lite Benchmarks Abstract: A common problem in LLM evaluation is how to choose a subset of metrics from a full suite of possible metrics. Subset selection is...

Gerdus Benade (BU, Harvard): Towards Rawlsian Justice in Food Rescue

September 19, 2025

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1:30PM - 2:30PM EDT

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SEC LL2.221

In Person

Towards Rawlsian Justice in Food Rescue We study a problem faced by a national food rescue platform that matches each donation to the first recipient who claims it. Recipients have very different response rates, leading to a few highly responsive...