Research

Working papers

"Transparency and Support for redistribution" with Joana Silva, Matteo Morgandi, and Victoria Levin 

Using novel cross-country surveys, we show that despite favoring redistribution, many citizens oppose pro-poor policies due to distrust in state capacity to implement them effectively. We explore how transparency in program delivery, as allowed by digital solutions, can break this bad equilibrium. In an incentivized experiment on a representative sample of Jordanian middle-class households, we generate causal evidence that transparency makes citizens more willing to support redistribution, especially among youth and individuals with low trust in state capacity. Our treatment increased support for cash-based programs, which have a greater potential on poverty but is more prone to elite capture.

“Employment versus Efficiency: Which Firms should R&D Tax Credits Target?” with Rahim Lila and Joana Silva

Awarded for the "Impact of Science on Economy and Society in Portugal" call GEE/FCT

R&D tax credits, by stimulating private sector innovation, can play a key role in promoting employment and firm performance.  This paper examines the program impact on the trajectory of firms in terms of technology adoption, firm performance and workforce composition, and the extent to which it depends on the size of the targeted firms. It uses rich longitudinal micro-data on innovation, firms and their workers. Combining matching with a staggered adoption differences-in-differences, we show that tax credits increase investment in R&D-related activities while funds are being received, but not thereafter. Productivity and efficiency (but not employment) increase in large firms. These effects are driven by structural changes, both in terms of the increased share of skilled individuals within the firm (keeping the overall employment level constant) and enhanced technological adoption. In contrast, small firms mostly respond by increasing employment and production scale. Our results suggest that an important trade-off: R&D tax credit programs that target large firms are likely to lead to efficiency and productivity gains, but limited effects on employment of supported firms. In contrast, R&D tax credit programs that mostly benefit small firms may lead to employment gains in supported firms, but limited effects on structural changes in productivity and efficiency.

Do social preference games predict behavior in the long-run? A lab-in-the-field experiment with crowdfunding contributors, with Marco Gazel (submitted)

We explore the long-run external validity of social preference games by linking behavior from a lab-in-the-field experiment to longitudinal data on crowdfunding contributions. In 2015, contributors of a crowdfunding platform participated in incentivized versions of the Dictator Game, the Trust Game (in both roles), and the Public Goods Game. We tracked their subsequent activity on the platform over a ten-year period, focusing on the number of distinct projects they funded. Cooperation in the Public Goods Game and positive reciprocity in the Trust Game are significantly associated with long-term crowdfunding behavior, and these correlations remain stable over time. The first-mover decision in the Trust Game also shows a positive, though weaker, association, while the Dictator Game is a poor predictor. Importantly, where predictive relationships are observed, they are concentrated among participants who reported supporting projects outside their personal networks. In addition, individuals who funded social projects exhibit higher levels of prosociality in the lab. Taken together, our findings suggest that certain standard laboratory games effectively capture stable and generalized prosocial preferences.

"How do Music Market Changes Affect Consumer Demand and Welfare? An Experimental Approach", with Louis Levy-Garboua, Laëtitia Placido, and Claire Owen

We use choice data generated out of experimental music markets to estimate an AIDS complete demand system for musical genres (Pop-Rock, Classical, Rap-RnB, Blues-Jazz). Own and cross-price elasticities are estimated for two market structures, monopolistic and Bertrand competition, and several groups with similar listening habits. The estimated parameters of the demand functions for every group and market structure are then used to compute the change of consumer surplus associated with a potential change of market structure. We find that groups adopt different strategies in front of change of market structure and the associated competitive pressure on prices. The groups who love classical genres of music are harmed more than others by a large price increase but they manage to alleviate the welfare cost by a systematic exploitation of increased price volatility.    

“Investigating the Analytical Robustness of the Social and Behavioural Sciences” (with Balazs Aczel, Barnabas Szaszi, Harry T. Clelland, Marton Kovacs, Hannah Schulz-Kümpel, Felix Holzmeister, Gustav Nilsonne, Sabine Hoffmann, Livia Kósa, Zoltán Torma, Brian Nosek, and 477 others) R&R at Nature

The same dataset can be analysed in different justifiable ways to answer the same research question, potentially challenging the robustness of empirical science. In this crowd initiative, we investigated the degree to which research findings in the social and behavioural sciences are contingent on analysts’ choices. To explore this question, we took a sample of 100 studies published between 2009 and 2018 in criminology, demography, economics and finance, management, marketing and organisational behaviour, political science, psychology, and sociology. For one claim of each study, at least five re-analysts were invited to independently re-analyze the original data. The statistical appropriateness of the re-analyses was assessed in peer evaluations and the robustness indicators were inspected along a range of research characteristics and study designs. Only 31% of the independent re-analyses yielded the same result (within a tolerance region of +/- 0.05 Cohen’s d) as the original report. Even with a four times broader tolerance region, this indicator did not go above 56%. Regarding the conclusions drawn, only 34% of the studies remained analytically robust, meaning that all re-analysts reported evidence for the originally reported claim. Using a more liberal definition of robustness produced comparable result (39% when >80% re-analysis agreement with the original conclusion defined analytical robustness). This explorative study suggests that the common single-path analyses in social and behavioural research cannot be assumed to be robust to alternative — similarly justifiable — analyses. Therefore, we recommend the development and use of practices to explore and communicate this neglected source of uncertainty. 

Research projects

• DIVERGE: Understanding the role of social media in shaping the gender political gap (2025-ongoing) Principal Investigator

• Global Media Study project (2024-ongoing) Co-leader Team France

• 'The Role of Accountability and Efficiency: Information with Impact' (2021-2023) Member

• 'Avaliaçãoo dos Efeitos dos Programas de Incentivo `as Empresas no Desempenho' Principal Investigator

• ’Quality and social interactions in crowdfunding’ project financed by the French Ministère de la Culture and the labex ICCA for the "Crowdfunding for arts, culture and medias" (2015-2017) Co-Principal investigator

• ’Prosocial motivations to crowdfund cultural projects’ (2014) Principal investigator

• MACCAN Project (Marché de l’Art, Conformisme Créativité, et Adoption de la Nouveauté) (2012-2014) Member

PhD dissertation

"Music markets and the adoption of novelty: experimental approaches", under the supervision of Pr. Louis Lévy-Garboua.

Referees: Charles Noussair (Professor at University of Arizona) and Paul Belleflamme (Professor at Aix-Marseille)

External examiners: Françoise Benhamou (Professor at University Paris 13), Matteo Galizzi (Assistant Professor at London School of Economics)

President: François Gardes (Professor at University Paris I)