The Labour Econometrics Workshop (LEW) is an annual meeting that brings together researchers working on labour economics and closely related applied topics, with an emphasis on rigorous empirical work and the application of econometric methods.

Over more than two decades, LEW has developed into a leading workshop for labour economics in the Oceania region while remaining deliberately boutique: a single stream of presentations supported by high-quality discussants and ample time for discussion.

LEW 2026 will be held in Perth, hosted by UWA Business School, on Thursday 16 and Friday 17 July 2026.

Workshop program coming soon.

Call for papers

We are now inviting submissions to present at LEW 2026. Submissions in labour economics and applied economics more broadly are welcome. Please share this call with colleagues who may be interested in presenting, especially early-career researchers and PhD students.

Key dates (AWST):
Paper submissions open, Registrations open: Tuesday, 17 February 2026
Submission deadline: Friday, 10 April 2026
Notification of outcomes: Friday, 24 April 2026
Registrations close: Thursday, 9 July 2026
Workshop dates: Thursday, 16 July - Friday, 17 July 2026

Authors of accepted papers will be asked to provide a complete, or close to complete, paper in advance of the workshop so it can be shared with the invited discussant.

Session format

The workshop runs as a single stream. Two papers are presented in each session, with one discussant per paper. Presentations are typically 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for the discussant and 10 minutes for audience questions (40 minutes per paper).

How to submit

Please submit a full-length paper or an extended abstract (PDF or Word). Include your full name, position and affiliation(s), and list any co-authors (optional). For any questions about submissions, please contact [email protected].

Submit paper

Keynote Speakers

Muriel Niederle, Professor, Stanford University

Muriel Niederle is the Pauline K. Levin-Robert L. Levin and Pauline C. Levin-Abraham Levin Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research at Stanford University.

Her research uses experimental methods to study topics in labour economics and related applied fields, including incentives, workplace competition, and how institutional design shapes economic outcomes. She is widely known for influential work on selection into competitive environments and gender differences in economic behaviour and outcomes, and has been published in leading economics journals such as the American Economic Review and Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Prof. Niederle is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and has held visiting appointments including the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton) and Harvard University. She was elected as a Fellow of the Econometric Society, and has served in editorial roles for leading journals, including the American Economic Journal: Microeconomics and the Journal of the European Economic Association.

Orley Ashenfelter, Professor, Princeton University

Orley C. Ashenfelter is the Joseph Douglas Green 1895 Professor of Economics, Emeritus at Princeton University. He has held a number of prominent research and public-service roles, including Director of the Office of Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Labor, and he has served in major editorial positions, including as an editor of the American Economic Review, and the co-editor of the American Law and Economics Review. His work is widely cited in empirical labour economics and applied econometrics, with a particular emphasis on labour markets, wages, and policy evaluation.

Prof. Ashenfelter has been recognised with major honours and professional distinctions, including the Frisch Medal, the IZA Prize in Labor Economics, and the Mincer Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Society of Labor Economists. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Society of Labor Economics, and a International Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

He is a past president of the American Economic Association, the American Law and Economic Association, and the Society of Labor Economists. He has also contributed to economics institutions internationally, including long-running involvement with CERGE-EI in Prague, and has been recognised by Charles University.

Committees

Organising committee:

• Tushar Bharati, Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, UWA Business School, The University of Western Australia
• Valeria Bodishtianu, Lecturer, Department of Economics, UWA Business School, The University of Western Australia
• Prof. Robert Breunig, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy and Department of Economics, Australian National University.
• Simon Chang, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, UWA Business School, The University of Western Australia
  
• Ishita Chatterjee, Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, UWA Business School, The University of Western Australia
• Shawn Chen, Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, UWA Business School, The University of Western Australia

Scientific committee:

• Victoria Baranov, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Melbourne
• Tushar Bharati, Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, UWA Business School, The University of Western Australia
• Nitin Bharti, Lecturer, Department of Economics, UWA Business School, The University of Western Australia
• Simon Chang, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, UWA Business School, The University of Western Australia
• Michael Dockery, Professor, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, Curtin Business School, Curtin University
• Mark Harris, John Curtin Distinguished Professor, School of Accounting, Economics and Finance (Curtin Business School), Curtin University
• Astghik Mavisakalyan, Professor, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, Curtin Business School, Curtin University
• Rigissa Megalokonomou, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Monash University 
• Michael Palmer, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, UWA Business School, The University of Western Australia
• Christopher Parsons, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, UWA Business School, The University of Western Australia
• Anu Rammohan, Professor, Department of Economics, UWA Business School, The University of Western Australia
  
   

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