On October 9–10, 2025, the Berlin Network of Labor Market Research (BeNA) hosted Peter Hull, Professor of Economics at Brown University, for this year’s BeNA Lecture Series at DIW Berlin. The two-day event brought together PhD students, postdocs, and faculty from across Germany and covered the topics of shift-shares and recentered IV methods.
The lecture series offered a structured introduction to two increasingly important methods in economic research: shift-share instruments and recentered IV. On the first day, Peter presented the foundations of shift-share designs, discussing when they can identify causal effects and how recent methodological advances address inference challenges. Concrete empirical examples illustrated how these instruments can shed light on questions in regional and labor economics.
Day two focused on the logic and implementation of recentered IV methods — a newer approach that improves performance in IV estimation by utilizing recentered responses of endogenous variables to exogenous shocks. Peter explained the underlying intuition and demonstrated how recentering can strengthen empirical credibility.
In addition to the lectures, Peter gave a research talk showcasing current applications of recentered IV. Participants also had the chance to sign up for one-on-one office hours, using the opportunity to receive feedback on their research projects.
We thank Professor Hull for an insightful and engaging series, and all participants for their contributions in making the lecture series a success. We especially thank Thomas Rieger for the organization of the event.
The program of the lecture series is available here.