Research

Publications

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. 

Presented at Sciences Po, Porto, Evry, EEA, SOLE, UC Berkeley Labor Lunch, UC Irvine, PSE and Rotterdam. 

Read our article in Liberation or our VoxEU article

Media Coverage: Svenska Dagbladet, Fotbollskanalen, Five Thirty Eight

Gender quotas in hiring committees: A boon or a bane for women? (Article) (Management Science, Forthcoming)

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.

Presented at Sciences Po, EALE, EEA, SOLE, AFSE, EPP Conference, RES PHD Meetings, Paris-Sud, SOFI, Table-Ronde LIEPP.

Media coverage: Times Higher Education, Nature, Inside Higher Ed, European Scientist, The Conversation FR

Working Papers

Local Labor Market Dynamics and Agglomeration Effects (with Guillaume Wilemme) 

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.

Presented at the ECHOPPE conference. 

Works in Progress

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.

Presented at Sciences Po , EALE 2019, SOLE 2022 , Swedish economics conference and AFSE 2022. 

Gender differences in screening on online platforms (with Guillaume Chapelle, Dylan Glover,  Morgane Laouenan and Xavier Lambin)

There are gender differences in perceptions of safety. Differences in precautionary behavior to avoid unsafe situations can lead to gender gaps in economic outcomes. We show that differences in screening lead to worse economic outcomes for women using a three-pronged approach on a French carpooling platform. First, using a correspondence study with fictitious drivers, we find that female drivers are more likely to be contacted by passengers. Scraped data however, reveals that they are not able to translate this advantage into higher revenues. Using a second correspondence study, we show that female drivers are less likely to reply to messages from fictitious passengers, suggesting that they screen passengers more than men do, reconciling the two previous results. 

Does linguistic diversity increase productivity? (with Guillaume Chapelle)

Employer learning about worker productivity in the Swedish labor market (with Louis-Pierre Lepage and Jose Montalban)

Statistical Discrimination and Network Formation in University Admissions, with Louis-Pierre Lepage

How do teachers respond to smaller classes? Evidence and Implications for Student Learning  (with Jose Montalban, Damon Clark  and Alexandra de Gendre)

Non-Refereed Publications

Les quotas de genre dans le monde académique (with Mathieu Arbogast, Anne Revillard and Marie Sautier)