INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
The Roads to Development:
Work, Markets and Institutions
October, 20-21, 2025
Development is the new name for peace (St. Paul VI)
Much has been said and researched about development over the last decades. Starting from a narrower vision, which mostly identified development with economic growththese days the perspective has broadened and integrates different dimensions that affect human developmentThe idea of sustainable development bears witness to this evolution, marking a convergence with the idea of integral human development, which requires an articulated synthesis of these dimensions around human dignity. The idea of sustainable development bears witnesses to this evolution, marking a convergence with the idea of integral human development, which requires an articulated synthesis of these dimensions around human dignity.
Yet, the contemporary geopolitical context demands an updated reflection on the constraints and opportunities for furthering development both at the national and at the global scale. To this end, this conference brings together leading scholars who will revisit the concept of development and consider the conditions that make it possible in the light of today's most pressing challenges, including technology, work, productivity, sustainability, democracy and peace.
Specifically, in the first day, we will review the idea ofsustainable developmentIts relationship with the notion of integral development, as well as the macroeconomic and political challenges it faces in a geopolitical context marked by growing international conflicts and persistent pressures on democratic regimes.
On the second day, in turn, we will address the specific drivers of development, considering, first of all, the role of work as a fundamental key to human development, not only from an economic perspective, but also a social and psychological one. In this context, we will think about the opportunities and challenges that innovation and technology pose to work; we will also examine the role of markets and institutions in driving and articulating development, paying particular attention to the emergence of new markets.
The conference will conclude by considering an ethical framework for economic development.
DAY 1
09:00 Welcome introduction
09:15 Session 1: Keynote lecture. "The idea of sustainable development in the current geopolitical context".
→ Jeffrey D. Sachs, Columbia University
10:45 Coffee break
11:15 Session 2 Keynote lecture. "Sustainable and integral development: the forging of a concept".
→ Albino Barrera, Providence College
12:45 Session 3: Communications - break out sessions
- Power, Prosperity, and Planet: Rethinking Development in a Turbulent World
- The Future of Work, Wealth, and Well-Being: Navigating Innovation and Inequality
- The New Frontiers of Human-Centered Economic Development
- Ethics Meets Economics: Building a Sustainable and Just Future
14:00 Lunch
16:00 Session 4: "Past, Present, and Future: Demography, Economic History, and Policy Insights".
→ Leandro Prados de la Escosura, University Carlos III
→ Antonio Moreno, University of Navarra
→ José Azar, IESE Business School, University of Navarra
17:30 Coffee break
18:00 Session 5: Keynote lecture. "Democracy and Sustainable human development"
→ Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University
DAY 2
09:15 Session 6: Keynote lecture. "Productivity in an Ageing World: Challenges and Opportunities of AI".
→ Juan Francisco Jimeno, Bank of Spain
10:45 Coffee break
11:15 Session 7 Keynote lecture. "Meaningful Work and the Automation Frontier".
→ Allison Pugh, Johns Hopkins University
12:45 Session 8: Communications - break out sessions
- Power, Prosperity, and Planet: Rethinking Development in a Turbulent World
- The Future of Work, Wealth, and Well-Being: Navigating Innovation and Inequality
- The New Frontiers of Human-Centered Economic Development
- Ethics Meets Economics: Building a Sustainable and Just Future
14:00 Lunch
16:00 Session 9: "Migration, Health, and Economic Choices in a Globalized World".
→ Jesús Fernández-Huertas Moraga, Universidad Carlos III
→ Sandra Polonia-Reyes, University of Navarra
→ Nuria Mas, IESE Business School, University of Navarra
17:30 Coffee break
18:00 Session 10: Keynote lecture. "An ethical frame for economic development"
→ Stefano Zamagni, University of Bologna
Jeffrey D. Sachs
Columbia University
Jeffrey Sachs is a globally renowned economist and leader in sustainable development, known for tackling challenges like extreme poverty, climate change, international debt crises, and pandemic control. He directs the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and previously led its Earth Institute (2002-2016). Sachs holds numerous prestigious roles, including President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and SDG Advocate for UN Secretary General António Guterres. He also served as Special Advisor to three UN Secretaries-General (2001-2018).
An accomplished author, Sachs has written several influential books, including "The End of Poverty" and "The Age of Sustainable Development". His work has earned him significant accolades, such as the 2022 Tang Prize in Sustainable Development, the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, and recognition as one of "Time" magazine's 100 most influential leaders. With 42 honorary doctorates, Sachs has also received high honors from France and Estonia. Before joining Columbia, he spent over 20 years at Harvard University.
Albino Barrera
Providence College
Albino Barrera, O.P. is Professor of Economics and Theology at Providence College (RI, USA). His research interests are economic ethics and the Church's poverty alleviation work. He has taught Development Economics, International Trade, Catholic Social Thought, and Theological Ethics for Business and Economics, among other courses. His most recent book is Compassion-Justice Conflicts and Christian Ethics (Cambridge, November 2023). He is the lead publisher of the Oxford Handbook of Religion and Economic Ethics (Oxford, February 2024).
Stefano Zamagni
University of Bologna
Professor of economics, previously at University of Bologna and Adjunct professor of International Political Economy, Johns Hopkins University, Bologna Center with degrees obtained from Catholic University in Milan, Italy and University of Oxford (UK).
He is a full professor of Political Economy at the University of Bologna, where he has also previously served as President of the Faculty of Economics and as Vice Director of the Senior Adjunct Professor of International Political Economy (SAIS).
He is a member of various institutions, including the Academic Committee of the International Research Center on Human Development, Capability, and Poverty at Harvard University; the National Council of the Third Sector in Rome; and the Scientific Council of the PhD program in Economics at the Argentine Catholic University.
His research and publications focus on international political economy, civil economy, economics and ethics, theories of consumer behavior and social choice, and economic epistemology.
Joseph Stiglitz
Columbia University
Joseph E. Stiglitz is a renowned economist and Nobel Prize winner in Economics (2001). He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1967 and became a tenured professor at Yale in 1970. He has taught at institutions such as Princeton, Stanford, and MIT, and was a Fellow at Oxford Business School. Currently, he is a Professor of Economics and Finance at Columbia University in New York.
Stiglitz served as a member of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers and was its Chairman from 1993 to 1995. He also served as Vice President of the World Bank from 1997 to 2000, where he observed "firsthand the devastating effects globalization can have on developing countries, particularly on the poor within those countries."
Stiglitz is a key architect of the rules that govern today's global economy and a pioneer of what is known as the Economics of Information. His research focuses on market failures caused by information asymmetries, which has influenced intervention policies in major developed nations.
His book "Globalization and Its Discontents" ("El Malestar en la Globalización", Ed. Taurus) has been translated into more than 20 languages and has become a bestseller worldwide.
Juan Francisco Jimeno
Bank of Spain
Juan Francisco Jimeno Serrano is an advisor at the Directorate General of Economics, Statistics, and Research at the Bank of Spain and an associate professor at the University of Alcalá.
He is also a research fellow at the Center for Monetary and Financial Studies (CEMFI), the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), and the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). His main research interests lie in the fields of macroeconomics, labor economics, and public economics.
At the Bank of Spain, he has held the positions of Head of the Macroeconomic Modeling and Analysis Division and Head of the Research Division. Previously, he served as a senior researcher at the Foundation for Applied Economic Studies and as an Economics professor at the London School of Economics (LSE). He has published numerous articles on economic topics in leading national and international academic journals.
He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Alcalá.
Allison Pugh
Johns Hopkins University
Allison Pugh is Research Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on how meaningful emotional connections between people are shaped by socioeconomic trends such as standardization, job insecurity and inequalities of gender, race and class. Her fourth book The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World (Princeton 2024) was based on a federally funded study of the rationalization of work that relies on relationship, has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and The Human Brain, and has been widely reviewed. The 2024-25 Vice President of the American Sociological Association, Pugh has been a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, the Berggruen Institute, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, as well as a visiting scholar in Germany, France and Australia.
Call for Papers
The conference will bring together top researchers from academia, international organizations, and other policy institutions to present research findings related to sustainable development. More broadly speaking, topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
Power, Prosperity, and Planet: Rethinking Development in a Turbulent World
The Future of Work, Wealth, and Well-Being: Navigating Innovation and Inequality
The New Frontiers of Human-Centered Economic Development
Ethics Meets Economics: Building a Sustainable and Just Future
SUBMISSIONS
We invite authors to submit completed papers or extended abstracts. Preferences are for completed papers. Those interested in presenting a contribution in the conference, please send an abstract to Beatriz Simón Yarza(bsimon@unav.es) before April 30, 2025 (by 12pm CET).
Selected communications will be presented in 20-minute segments during break out sessions on each of the two conference days. Decisions of acceptance or rejection will be sent out no later than May 20, 2025.
REGISTRATION
Participants must register for the conference and pay the corresponding registration fee. Participants will be responsible for their own travel and accomodation (please see section on travel and accomodation on the conference website).
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Mirko Abbritti
Ana Marta González
Antonio Moreno
Beatriz Simón Yarza
PAYMENT FEES
| REGISTRATION FEES | EARLY BIRD | FROM JULY 1ST |
| Academics | 250,00 € | 350,00 € |
| Professionals | 250,00 € | 350,00 € |
| Students | 00,00 € | 40,00 € |
| Member of the Association of Spanish Development Economists | 150,00 € | 250,00 € |
| Not listed | 250,00 € | 350,00 € |
| Personnel UNAV | 00,00 € | 100,00 € |
* Early bird discount until 30 June 2025 - Registration deadline: 1 October 2025
THE VENUE
The conference will be held at the University of Navarra Museum of Contemporary Art located on campus in Pamplona, Spain. Designed by the Pritzker winning architect, Rafael Moneo, the University Museum is an international center of public interest. It provides a setting for an interdisciplinary dialogue and furthers both academic reflections and artistic creativity alike.
Accommodation:
The following hotels are conveniently located just off campus and a short walk from the conference venue:
→ Hotel Blanca de Navarra 4* (800 m)
→ Hotel Albret 4* (1.3 km)
→ Hotel NH Pamplona Iruña Park 4* (1.3 km)
→ Hotel Tres Reyes 4* (1.8 km)
In order to book your accommodation at a discounted price, please fill in and send this form.