NAPW 2025 Recap: Bridging Research, Policy, and Practice in Productivity Analysis

Hosted by: NAPW Committee & Virginia Tech ISE Department – System Performance Laboratory (SPL)

June 9–12, 2025
Virginia Tech Research Center, Arlington, VA

NAPW XII (2025) brought together over 115 attendees from more than 40 countries across five continents, a vibrant and highly diverse community including researchers, policymakers, and industry professionals, for a dynamic four-day program focused on productivity and efficiency analysis.

The event offered a rich platform for exchange among academic, industry, and governmental voices. The program featured high-profile plenaries, including Ron Jarmin (U.S. Census Bureau), Bert Kroese (IMF), and Andrew Johnson (Amazon), each addressing timely topics on AI, economic activity, and productivity analytics. 

The program unfolded into four days of intellectual exchange. It offered a uniquely interdisciplinary exploration of productivity, efficiency, and performance measurement across a wide range of sectors and methodologies. Key themes include agricultural productivity with a strong focus on environmental externalities and sustainable practices, cutting-edge advancements in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA), and the integration of AI and machine learning into productivity research. The program also delves into sector-specific applications in banking, energy, transportation, health, and public institutions, alongside innovative topics such as socio-technical system resilience, court efficiency, and structural productivity in developing economies. With sessions spanning theoretical models, empirical applications, and policy-relevant insights, the conference highlights both global and local perspectives on productivity in an era of technological and environmental transition.

The conference also featured a special Lifetime Achievement Award session in honor of Leopold Simar, with heartfelt presentations by several well-known scholars in the field: Paul Wilson, Cinzia Daraio, Camilla Mastromarco, and Valentin Zelenyuk, capturing the legacy and continued relevance of Leopold's contributions to the field.

NAPW 2025 was ultimately a celebration of years of collective effort and ongoing dedication to the field of productivity and performance analysis. The community that gathered in Arlington this June left not only with new ideas and insights but also with a renewed sense of connection across continents, disciplines, and generations.