Venice Summer School on Inequality and Vulnerability

  • When: July 6th-11th, 2026
  • Where: San Giobbe Economics Campus - Cannaregio 873, Venice
  • Deadline for application: April 30th, 2026, 12.00 pm (CEST)

The Summer School

The School is jointly organised by the Department of Economics of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy, and the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics in Bonn, Germany.
It is going to take place on July 6th-9th, 2026 at San Giobbe Economics Campus (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice), and will be followed by a workshop on July 10th-11th, 2026.

The Summer School is designed for PhD students and early-career researchers interested in the topics of inequality and vulnerability; it offers an opportunity to build connections, learn from top scholars, and explore research in behavioral economics related to the topics of the School.

The summer school is organised within the framework of the VIVA- Venice Initiative on Vulnerability Analysis project, funded by the programme "Departments of Excellence 2023-2027".

Summer School lecturers and timetable

Lectures will be held in English according to the following provisional schedule: Monday to Thursday, from 9.15 to 12.30 and from 14.30 to 15.30. Daily, from 15.30 to 18:30, students will present their research work (25 minutes each, followed by a discussion).
The Summer School will be held in San Giobbe Economics Campus. The courses (Monday 6th-Thursday 9th) in Meeting Room 1, and the workshop (Friday 10th-Saturday 11th) in Room 10A.

  • Monday, July 6th 2026: Matthias Sutter (Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics, Bonn), Of floods, Shocks and Economic Preferences: Insights from Bangladesh.   
  • Tuesday, July 7th 2026: Valeria Maggian (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice), Fabio Galeotti (CNRS & University of Lyon), From Schools to Pensions: Field Experiments on Gender and Age Inequality (and What Can Go Wrong in Practice).
  • Wednesday, July 8th 2026: Johannes Haushofer (Brooks School of Public Policy, Cornell University), Behavioral Economics and Poverty.
  • Thursday, July 9th 2026: Ingvild Almås (University of Zurich),Title TBA.
  • Friday, July 10th and Saturday, July 11th 2026: Workshop on Inequality and Vulnerability. 

Workshop on Inequality and Vulnerability - July 10th-11th 2026

Back-to-back just after the Summer School, the workshop brings together international experts. Summer School students are expected to stay for the workshop, which is also open to other participants with no fee. Registration is compulsory.

Call for admission

The Summer School is open to a maximum of 25 participants. It is intended for PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers, and early-career scholars with a background relevant to the themes of the School. Participants will be selected on the basis of their CV and motivation letter. 

A Certificate of Attendance will be provided at the end. 

Deadline for application is set on April 30th, 2026, at 12.00 pm (CEST).

Costs and Covered Expenses

There are no participation fees for the school. However, participants are responsible for covering their own travel and lodging expenses. The school will assist participants in arranging accommodation, with an expected cost of approximately € 75 per night for a single room. The organizers cover lunch from Monday to Saturday, a welcome aperitif on July 6th, and the joint workshop conference dinner on July 10th.

In collaboration with

Max Planck Institute