This is the first of two volumes containing papers and commentaries presented at the Eleventh World Congress of the Econometric Society, held in Montreal, Canada in August 2015. These papers provide state-of-the-art guides to the most important recent research in economics. The book includes surveys and interpretations of key developments in economics and econometrics, and discussion of future directions for a wide variety of topics, covering both theory and application. These volumes provide a unique, accessible survey of progress on the discipline, written by leading specialists in their fields. The first volume includes theoretical and applied papers addressing topics such as dynamic mechanism design, agency problems, and networks.

‘These volumes live up to the standard set by previous Econometric Society World Congress volumes in leading debates about research in economics and econometrics. One of the highlights of the Econometric Society World Congress is the opportunity that it gives for cutting-edge appraisals of the knowledge presented by leaders in their field. This is an important resource for anyone who wants to get up to speed on the topics covered or learn from another expert's take on these important issues.'

Timothy Besley - London School of Economics and Political Science

‘Every five years there is a world congress of the Econometric Society and every five years plenary talks and papers by leading researchers represent the state of economic research. Collected together in these volumes are those papers from the 11th congress in Montreal from 2015. Editors Bo Honoré, Ariel Pakes, Monika Piazzesi, and Larry Samuelson have identified the most exciting areas of current economic research and the top scholars in those areas to talk and write about them.'

Stephen Morris - Princeton University, New Jersey

‘This collection of papers provides in-depth reviews of recent advances in many areas of economics. It will be very useful for researchers, graduate students, and instructors of advanced graduate classes.'

Drew Fudenberg - Paul A. Samuelson Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and President of the Econometric Society 2017

‘This manuscript collects the invited talks from the 2015 World Congress of the Econometric Society. The authors are leaders in their respective fields, and their talks provide a valuable overview of recent research. The collected papers emphasize the connection between theory and empirical practice.'

Robert Porter - William R. Kenan, Jr Professor of Economics, Northwestern University, Illinois