The Idea Labs function as convening hubs for Columbia faculty and students to advance new thinking, affect graduate training, and incubate ideas. The Labs are designed to develop new intellectual frameworks in economics and related fields that take seriously the concepts of power, equity and uncertainty. To do so, they create opportunities for faculty and students to engage with practitioners and policymakers, and to support, identify and advance the most promising recent developments.
The Labs have an intentional cross-disciplinary focus that bring together the disparate fields of economics, history, law, political science, sociology, public health, engineering, data science and other areas of study.
As multi-year projects, each Lab:
- Hosts one or more postdoctoral research scholars;
- Provides annual grants to Columbia faculty and graduate students on related topics;
- Organizes conferences, seminars, workshops and other public and semi-public events; and
- Generates scholarly publications, curricular materials and public-facing reports.
We encourage you to join an Idea Lab to shape the next generation of thinking about key issues in political economy. To learn more and get involved, please sign up for our newsletter.