Publications
Local Labor Market Dynamics and Agglomeration Effects (with Guillaume Wilemme) (European Economic Review, November 2025)
Local labor market conditions are strongly persistent. Using a search-and-matching model with agglomeration effects and worker and firm migration, we study the transitional dynamics of a regional economy. We estimate the impact of a negative shock on the local labor market using state-level U.S. data to provide moments that are then matched to the simulated model. Agglomeration effects and migration elasticities are critical factors responsible for the persistent employment level response. Short-term place-based policies can help the region since they dampen the impact of the shock on the employment level.
Gender Quotas in Hiring Committees: A Boon or a Bane for Women? (Management Science, November 2024)
Women are underrepresented in many prestigious positions. Could increasing the share of women in hiring committees boost the rates at which women are hired into these positions? I use a difference-in-differences design to examine the effects of a French law on academic hiring committees that required each gender to represent a share of at least 40% of members. Contrary to the objectives of the law, I show that the reform backfired and significantly lowered women's probability of being hired. Since the negative effect of the reform is concentrated in committees headed by men, this result seems driven by the reaction of men to the reform. I find little evidence that the reform affects supply-side characteristics such as the likelihood of women applying. The results suggest that the underrepresentation of women is unlikely to be solved by simply increasing the share of women in hiring committees or interview panels.
Media coverage: Times Higher Education, Nature, Inside Higher Ed, European Scientist, The Conversation FR
Labor Mobility and Racial Discrimination (with José de Sousa) (European Economic Review, June 2021)
We examine the effect of labor mobility constraints on racial wage discrimination. We show that when monopsony power is low because of relaxed labor mobility constraints, firms cannot act on their prejudice and discrimination disappears. This prediction is taken to the data by using an exogenous mobility shock on the European soccer labor market. The Bosman ruling lifted restrictions on player mobility in 1995. Using a panel of top English clubs, we compare the pre- and post-Bosman ruling market. We find evidence that wage discrimination disappears when constraints on worker mobility are lifted.
Read our article in Liberation or our VoxEU article
Media Coverage: Svenska Dagbladet, Fotbollskanalen, Five Thirty Eight
Working Papers
Safety First: Gender Differences in Screening on an Online Platform (with Guillaume Chapelle, Dylan Glover, Morgane Laouenan and Xavier Lambin)
We show that differences in screening lead to worse economic outcomes for women on the largest carpooling platform in Europe. Using a combination of correspondence studies, scraped platform data, hypothetical choice experiments and surveys, we find that while female drivers are strongly preferred on the platform they are not able to translate this advantage into higher revenues. We reconcile these two results by showing that female drivers screen more than men do. Using a hypothetical choice experiment, we find that these gender differences in screening are caused by differences in perceptions of risk and lower tolerance of unsafe passengers.
(Mis)Perceptions of the Labor Market (with Morgane Hoffmann, Morgane Laouenan, Louis-Pierre Lepage and Charles Pébereau)
Workers and firms make costly decisions based on what they think is valued in the labor market. We study whether employers and workers hold accurate perceptions about the preferences of others through a series of incentivized field experiments on one of Europe’s largest freelance platform. First, we elicit employer and worker preferences over a rich set of worker, employer, and job characteristics using randomized worker profile and job offer evaluations. Second, we elicit beliefs about these preferences, from the other side of the market as well as from competitors, and we test their accuracy. We document substantial perception gaps about labor market preferences on both sides of the market, including about the value of posted wages, human capital, market reputation, job amenities like remote work, and demographic characteristics. Third, we implement a personalized information treatment to correct these gaps and show that it changes participants' market behavior. To help interpret our results, we develop a theoretical framework showing how the perception gaps we document can distort both pricing and investment decisions. Consistent with the model, we find that workers and firms with larger perception gaps have worse market outcomes. Our findings highlight an important source of information frictions in labor markets and their economic consequences.
Why Do Smaller Classes Fail to Improve Student Learning? Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Surveys of Teachers, Parents and Students (with Damon Clark and Jose Montalban )
Across many settings, quasi-experimental studies find negligible effects of smaller classes on student learning. This is puzzling: teachers and parents favor smaller classes, and economists and education researchers have proposed mechanisms through which they should improve student outcomes - reduced classroom disruption (Lazear, 2001), greater use of individualized instruction (e.g., one-on-one help with math), and greater effectiveness of this instruction due to teachers’ increased capacity to provide it (i.e., fewer students to help). We address this puzzle using administrative and survey data from Madrid, a large school district in which class size varies quasi-experimentally. We confirm that class size has negligible effects on student learning and then ask: (i) do smaller classes activate the proposed mechanisms? and (ii) do offsetting behavioral responses - such as teachers focusing on student enjoyment, or reductions in student effort or parent involvement - help explain the results? We find that class size has only modest effects on classroom disruption and the use of individualized instruction, and negligible effects on the effectiveness of individualized instruction. While we detect some evidence of offsetting behavioral responses, we calculate that even in their absence, smaller classes would have limited effects on student learning.
Homophily and Migration
(Draft available upon request)
In this paper, I analyse differences in the mobility responses of different ethnic groups to economic shocks. In particular, does the ethnic composition of MSAs determine the response of different groups to shocks? I estimate a general equilibrium model on workers of different skill-level and race using US census data. The model considers the effect of wages, transfers, population movements, rents and amenities. I instrument the racial composition of cities by using Bartik shocks and the rise of hispanic and asian immigration. I show that these preferences affect the location decisions of workers and are quantitatively significant. Counterfactuals show that reducing these preferences could reduce the racial wage gap.
Non-Refereed Publications
Les quotas de genre dans le monde académique (with Mathieu Arbogast, Anne Revillard and Marie Sautier)