Bank of England’s 2026 BEAR conference 'The Interconnected World'

About the event

The Bank of England invites submissions for its annual Bank of England Agenda for Research (BEAR) conference, with this year’s theme being 'The Interconnected World'. As the UK navigates an increasingly interconnected global economy, issues such as the reshaping of global trade, international finance, and cross-border shock transmission are redefining its global interactions.

Programme

This two-day conference will bring together researchers from academia, international institutions, and policymaking bodies to explore these topics and promote policy-relevant research. The programme includes academic sessions as well as a high-level policy panel, with Philip Lane (ECB), Alan Taylor (Bank of England), Stephanie Flanders (Bloomberg) confirmed to participate; a keynote address by Hélène Rey (LBS); and fireside chat with Governor Andrew Bailey.

Programme

Watch the conference video recordings

Day 1: 7 May 2026

Day 2: 8 May 2026

Call for papers

The organising committee invites submissions of empirical and theoretical papers on topics including, but not limited to:

• Drivers of global imbalances, including macroeconomic forces, tariffs, subsidies, capital-flow management measures, and industrial policies
• Risks global imbalances pose for macroeconomic and financial stability, and policies that can mitigate such risks
• Reconfiguration of global supply chains, efficiency-resilience trade-offs, and their implications for the macroeconomy and central-bank policy
• The role of banks, non-banks, market-based finance, and new intermediation forms in cross-border shock transmission.
• Trends in trade and cross-border financial flows amid geoeconomic fragmentation, and their impact on activity, inflation, and financial stability
• Dominant currencies in trade and finance
• Exchange-rate determination and its policy implications

The conference will be held in London on the 7 and 8 of May 2026 as an in-person event. We have a limited budget to cover accommodation and economy-class travel for speakers from academia.

The deadline for submissions is 15 February 2026. Full papers should be submitted to the following email address: BearConference@bankofengland.co.uk. Authors of successful submissions will be notified by early March 2026.

Organising committee: Ambrogio Cesa-Bianchi, Ida Hjortsoe, Neeltje Van Horen, Michael Kumhof, Abigail Haddow, Kate Reinold, and Carlos Cañon Salazar.

Call for papers