Artificial Intelligence, Innovation, and Debt Sustainability in the Euro Area

Call for papers (pdf)

Motivation

Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping productivity, innovation and economic governance. This conference will examine how AI-related technological change affects growth, fiscal outcomes, and debt sustainability in the euro area. AI can influence growth and public finances through several channels: productivity gains, labour-market disruptions, changes in tax capacity and tax base composition, and increased demand for redistribution and retraining. It also creates new risks linked to data security, cyber resilience and operational dependence on critical digital infrastructure. For the euro area, these effects are especially relevant because AI adoption and innovation capacity may differ across countries. Asymmetric growth effects could have implications for economic convergence, fiscal frameworks and EU-level coordination.

The conference will bring together academics, policymakers and practitioners to examine how artificial intelligence may reshape productivity, public finances and debt sustainability in the euro area. Particular attention will be paid to the magnitude and persistence of AI-driven productivity gains, the channels through which AI may affect fiscal outcomes and debt dynamics, the risks of uneven adoption and economic divergence across euro area countries, and the policy frameworks needed to manage the opportunities and challenges arising from the AI transition.

Conference format

The conference will feature keynote lectures by senior policymakers. The afternoon of the first day will feature two high-level policy panels. The academic papers selected will be presented and discussed on the morning of the second day.

Keynote speaker: Kyriakos Pierrakakis – Minister of Finance of Greece and President of the Eurogroup

Panel I: Artificial Intelligence – The Productivity Shock of Our Times
Panelists: Óscar Arce, Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln, Hanifeh Khayyeri, Filiz Unsal.

Panel II: Fiscal Impact of the AI Shock
Panelists: Era Dabla-Norris, Luisa Lambertini, Frank Smets, Rolf Strauch.

Topics of particular interest for submission include, but are not limited to:

• AI adoption (or lack of) and its consequences on:
  • Productivity, growth, inflation and how to forecast it in the long term;
  • Economic convergence and implications for the euro area governance;
  • Firm- or sectoral-level productivity dynamics, labour-markets, inequality;
  • Public finance, tax capacity, public expenditure, redistribution, and debt sustainability.
• AI impact on financial stability:
  • Algorithmic trading and AI decision-making
  • Data security, cyber resilience, and the financial system
  • Financial inclusion and savings
  • Stranded assets

Paper submission and important dates

We invite theoretical, empirical and policy-oriented papers, including completed papers and well-developed drafts, that address the macroeconomic, fiscal and policy implications of artificial intelligence.

Submissions, in PDF format, should be made through the online form available on the SUERF website by 1 October 2026. Selected papers will be presented in dedicated academic sessions and discussed by senior policymakers and scholars. Notification of acceptance will be sent after the review process.

The conference will be held in hybrid format; selected speakers are kindly asked to participate in person in Luxembourg. Funding or reimbursement arrangements, if applicable, will be communicated separately.

Timeline

Paper submission deadline:       1 October 2026
Notification of acceptance:         16 October  2026
Invited papers session:                 4 December 2026, Luxembourg