Research

Job Market Paper

In this paper, we contend that local segregation should be an essential component of the analyzes of the determination of socio-ethnic income gaps. For this, we adopt a thorough distribution decomposition approach, as a general preliminary descriptive step to prospective specific structural analyses. Focusing on the contemporary White/African gap in South Africa, we first complete Mincer wage equations with an Isolation index that reflects the level of segregation in the local area where individuals dwell. Second, we decompose the income gap distribution into detailed composition and structure components. Third, we explore the heterogeneity of segregation effects on wage gaps along three theoretical lines: racial preferences, labor market segmentation, and networks links. Segregation is found to be the main contributor of the structure effect, ahead of education and experience, and to make a sizable contribution to the composition effect. Moreover, segregation is harmful at the bottom of the African income distribution, notably in relation to local informal job-search networks, while it is beneficial at the top of the White income distribution. Only minor influences of racial preferences and labor market segmentation are found. Specific subpopulations are identified that suffer and benefit most from segregation, including for the former, little educated workers in agriculture and mining, often female, immersed in their personal networks. Finally, minimum wage policies are found likely to attenuate most segregation’s noxious mechanisms.

Working papers

In his seminal work, Schelling (1971) shows that even preferences for integration generate high levels of segregation. However, this theoretical prediction does not match with decreasing levels of segregation observed since the 1970s. We build a general equilibrium model in which preferences depends on the number of peers and unlike individuals, but also on the benefit (or loss) they attribute to the economic and social life that a minority member brings with him, which we call their perception of the minority. In this framework, there always exists a structure of the preferences for which integrated equilibria emerge and are stable. Even when individuals are all racist, there is still a level of the perception of the minority for which integration is a stable outcome. We then propose an econometric method to derive the structural preference parameters of the model in the case of South Africa. Estimated preferences provide evidences toward more integration as the perception of the minority is positive and overcome both racism and homophilly by between roughly one and four times.


In this paper, we decompose the whole change in segregation between 2001 and 2011 in South Africa by using segregation curves and distribution regressions. The provision of basic public services appears to be the main explanation of the gap observed, while differences in sociodemographic characteristics play a minor role only for the least segregated neighbourhoods. The housing market is responsible for an important part only among neighbourhoods intermediately integrated, while past segregation and income influence moderately segregation throughout more than half of the South African neighbourhoods.


In this paper we propose a local Whittle estimator of stationary bivariate unbalanced fractional cointegration systems. Unbalanced cointegration refers to the situation where the observables have different integration orders, but their filtered versions have equal integration orders and are cointegrated in the usual sense. Based on the frequency domain representation of the unbalanced version of Phillip’s triangular system, we develop a semiparametric approach to jointly estimate the unbalance parameter, the long run coefficient, and the integration orders of regressors and cointegrating errors. The paper establishes the consistency and asymptotic normality of this estimator. We find a peculiar rate of convergence for the unbalance estimator (possibly faster than √n) and a singular joint limiting distribution of the unbalance and long-run coefficients. Its good finite-sample properties are emphasized through Monte Carlo experiments. We illustrate the relevance of the developed estimator for financial data in an empirical application to the information flowing between the crude oil spot and CME-NYMEX markets.


Work in progress

  • Vote-buying by Politicians: Evidence from French Senators, with B. Monnery

  • Coalition Stability in the French Parliament, with B. Monnery

  • Deforestation and Contested Village Borders in Indonesia, with Eliane El Badaoui and Stefania Lovo

  • Racial Preferences and Residential Sorting in Chicago: Evidence from Facebook, with E. Tovar

  • To Mine or To Farm? The Impact of New Mining Activities on Agricultural Productivity and Structural Transformation Through Land Use Change, with E. Dorinet and R. Sawadogo