Nicolas Clootens 

Assistant Professor at Ecole Centrale Marseille

Aix-Marseille School of Economics

mail:nicolas.clootens[at]centrale-marseille[dot]fr

    ResearchGate, Scholar


Research Interest : Environmental and Resource Economics, Growth, OLG

CV


Publications in journals:

The sustainability of resource use and the management of public finances are both long run issues that are linked to each other through savings decisions. In order to study them conjointly, this paper introduces a public debt stabilization constraint in an overlapping generation model in which non-renewable resources constitute a necessary input in the production function and belong to agents. It shows that stabilization of public debt at high level (as share of capital) may prevent the existence of a sustainable development path, \textit{i.e.} a path on which per capita consumption is not decreasing. Public debt thus appears as a threat to sustainable development. It also shows that higher public debt-to-capital ratios (and public expenditures-to-capital ones) are associated with lower growth. Two transmission channels are identified. As usual, public debt crowds out capital accumulation. In addition, public debt tends to increase resource use which reduces the rate of growth. We also provide a numerical analysis of the dynamics that shows that the economy is characterized by saddle path stability. Finally, we show that the public debt-to-capital ratio may be calibrated to implement the social planner optimal allocation according to which the growth rate is increasing in the degree of patience. 


This paper analyses the effects of flow pollution implied by the use of necessary non-renewable resources, fossil fuel for example, on overlapping generations (OLG) economies. Notably, it shows that, on the balanced growth path, flow pollution reduces the (negative) resources contribution to growth and increases resources conservation, capital accumulation, and growth. Flow pollution thus increases the ability of an economy to sustain a non-decreasing consumption path. Some of the results are due to (or magnified by) the OLG structure of the economy. In addition, the paper highlights the need for public intervention and shows that the optimal allocation may be decentralized using a tax on resources use and transfers.

This paper analyzes the behavior of cross-country growth rates with respect to resource abundance and dependence. We reject the linear model that is commonly used in growth regressions in favor of a multiple-regime alternative. Using a formal sample-splitting method, we find that countries exhibit different behaviors with respect to natural resources depending on their initial level of development. In high-income countries, natural resourcesplay only a minor role in explaining the differences in national growth rates. On the contrary,in low-income countries, abundance seems to be a blessing but dependence restricts growth.

This article aims to provide policy recommendations to improve both environmental quality and growth in the context of debt consolidation. For that purpose, we develop an overlapping generation model in which we include public debt, and we model the two-way causality between life expectancy and the environment. We use a phase diagram to demonstrate the possibility of an environmental poverty trap. Using comparative statics around steady states, we find that a voluntary environmental policy may allow a country to escape the environmental poverty trap, or may help a country to reach a higher level of development. This article also argues in favor of debt-for-nature swap mechanisms. Finally, by employing a welfare analysis, we find that public debt is a useful instrument to simultaneously solve the capital over-accumulation problem and reach environmental objectives; however, it must be used with caution.

We here provide some evidence that the growth regression models used to test the resource curse should correctly account for  heterogeneities between countries. We reproduce the results in a well-known article by Brunnschweiler and Bulte (2008) and  then test their robustness. We show that the impact of resource dependence on growth strongly depends on the way in which we model heterogeneity. We find evidence of the resource curse in low-income countries. 


Book Chapters:

This chapter discusses whether the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries are prone to be cursed or blessed by their natural resources endowments. It thus reviews the literature on the resource curse theory. The existence of a resource curse is discussed and arguments against advocates of the resource curse are presented. Then, the resource curse transmission channels are presented. Finally, we present to what extent MENA countries are affected by the curse, drawing on existing literature as well as empirical data. The (scarce) literature shows that a resource curse may be underway in MENA economies. Broadly speaking, this literature often argues that the curse could be turned into a blessing through institutional improvements. The empirical data presented in this chapter tend to confirm this view. They show that the economic development of resource-rich MENAs has not been translated into human progress and has been largely non-inclusive. These results are stronger when the resource rent per capita is larger. Finally, the average institutional quality in resources-rich MENA countries appears to be lower than the average institutional quality in resources-poor MENA economies, suggesting some room for an institutional resource curse.


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