VfS Annual Conference 2025: Registration starts on May, 1st

This year's Annual Conference will be held at Cologne University, 14-17 September 2025. Registration opens on 1 May 2025.

Core Conference 2025: Revival of Industrial Policy 

Industrial policy is back in fashion after having been frowned upon for a long time. In their reports to the EU Parliament and the EU Commission, former Italian Prime Ministers Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi recommend a massive strengthening of industrial policy in Europe. The cornerstone of the new EU Commission's economic policy is the 'Clean Industrial Deal', which aims to reconcile the transformation of the economy with the 'competitiveness' of industry. In Germany, the country with the highest industrial share of GDP in Europe, there is also a struggle over the scope and direction of industrial policy.

The triggers for this revival are manifold. In addition to Europe's weak productivity performance, they include the transition to climate neutrality, new geopolitical tensions and the associated need for a more resilient European economy.

In academia, 'industrial policy' is not a separate field of research, but is approached from a number of different angles. The keynote speeches at the Annual Conference will address aspects of current developments in industrial policy research and identify where further research is needed.

Réka Juhász (University of British Columbia) is co-founder of The Industrial Policy Group, which focuses on empirical issues in industrial policy with the aim of providing "fundamental insights into global industrial policy practice". Pol Antràs (Harvard University) is a leading expert on foreign trade and will discuss trade and security of supply. John Vickers (Oxford University) was Chairman of the former Office of Fair Trading and Chief Economist at the Bank of England. His presentation will focus on the interplay between industrial and competition policy.

Look forward to panels on many current economic and policy issues, workshops and three receptions.