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AI THEMATIC SEMESTER
AI for Applied Economics: Data, Methods and Challenges
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JANUARY – JULY 2027
About the semester
From January to July 2027, CERGIC will host a thematic semester on how artificial intelligence can be used to advance research in applied economics, supported by the CNRS AI for Science and Science for AI (AISSAI) center.
Generative AI can digitize historical archives, analyze text at scale, read satellite imagery and expose bias in automated decisions. Yet these tools are still rarely used in economics, and using them well requires training and rigorous methods. The semester brings together economists around multiple events to analyze AI both as a tool for empirical research and as an object of study.
The program is led by CERGIC, with events in Lyon, Lille with LEM, Paris with the AI Lab for Human and Social Sciences of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and Montpellier.
The semester is built around four research axes, each led by CERGIC researchers and anchored in a two-day workshop with a partner institution.
Multiple events will be organized throughout the semester, including an inaugural conference, the four thematic workshops, a training course, fully funded research visits for junior and senior scholars, and a seminar series.
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More information about our events will be available soon.
For questions, contact Kenza Elass
Discover our 4 axes
SHOW THE 4 AXES
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AXIS 1
AI and historical data
How can historical sources be turned into data for economic research? This involves digitizing and transcribing archival documents (OCR), extracting structured information from them, analyzing large historical text corpora, and applying Named Entity Recognition (NER) to identify individuals, firms, locations and other entities relevant to economic history.
COORDINATOR: Cédric Chambru
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AXIS 3
AI and spatial data
How can AI unlock new spatial data and dimensions for economic research? This includes geocoding and extracting geographic information, automating geospatial analysis, and classifying and recognizing features in satellite imagery and maps.
COORDINATOR: Mathieu Couttenier
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AXIS 2
AI and text analysis
How can AI help economists extract insights embedded in text? This involves analyzing sentiment and opinions in textual data, automatically classifying and categorizing documents, and fine-tuning large language models (LLMs) for specific tasks in applied economics.
COORDINATOR: Elisa Mougin
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AXIS 4
Fairness and AI's algorithmic bias
Do AI systems reproduce or amplify existing inequalities? This involves detecting and measuring gender, racial and ethnic bias in LLMs, assessing fairness in LLM-based decision-support systems, and developing methodologies for evaluating bias.
COORDINATOR: Aurélien Garivier, Kenza Elass
Research Visits
SHOW THE DETAILS
Throughout the semester, we fund research visits for junior and senior researchers to present their work on AI, meet our members, and take part in the semester's events.
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SENIOR RESEARCHERS
Assistant, associate and full professors
We would be glad to host you in Lyon during the semester. To discuss a visit, write to us at cergic.ai.semester@gmail.com.
