My areas of interest are international trade and investment, trade policies and long term issues. A few studies on current challenges in the world economy are worth mentioning.
There is an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to curb climate change. Achieving this ambitious goal for a global good - the climate - would theoretically require a common global carbon price. However, this approach runs up against the problem of free riding (non-participating countries benefit from the actions of countries that reduce their emissions), differentiated responsibilities (countries have different historical responsibilities for climate change) and differences in levels of development (countries do not have the same financial resources to reduce their emissions). Due to international differences in carbon prices, the efforts of the ''European Green Deal'' will be undermined by carbon leakage and distortions of competition. In a co-authored briefing for the European Parliament, I study the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and alternative solutions contemplated by the EU. The CBAM aims to impose a carbon price on imported products whose production-related emissions have not (or less) been taxed by the exporting country. I co-authored a quantification of the effects of a WTO-compatible CBAM. CBAM is achieving its objective of reducing leakage induced by European efforts, albeit incompletely for reasons detailed in a co-authored survey of the literature. In fact, the greatest challenge is to build stable coalitions of countries committed to ambitious policies.
The resurgence of protectionism is also threat for the global economy. The book co-edited with Ann Harrison - The Factory Free Economy - was prescient in addressing the great transformation of American industry and its social consequences, which jeopardize political support for an open economy. The future of the multilateral system of rules is indeed at stake: the High-Level Board of Experts on the Future of Global Trade Governance chaired by Bernard Hoekman published a report outlining a series of achievable policy recommendations that could restore the WTO's influence. Read here our recommendations. In a co-authored i-MIP brief, we explore the consequences of the US trade war on the French economy. By combining a New Quantitative Trade Model with a dynamic macroeconomic model we show that the uncertainty surrounding US trade policy doubles the recessionary impact on the French economy. On the Brexit, I co-authored in February 2011 a report commissioned by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) of the British Government, then headed by Vincent Cable. The ambition was to emphasize the benefits of the remain rather than the costs of the leave, as the title suggests: The Economic Consequences for the UK and the EU of Completing the Single Market. I had the opportunity again, in November 2016, to give my views on Openness, Trade and FDI after the Brexit at the London School of Economics, at the public session supporting the preparation of the 2017 UK Growth, a New Chapter report written by the LSE Growth Commission, including Tim Besley, Stephen Machin and Nicholas Stern. For me, soft Brexit - with lasting market access - is vital to the future of UK trade and prosperity, as explained in a short video.
Is the resurgence of protectionism good news for climate change? A simple analysis might suggest so. However, in a co-authored report for the French Council of Economic Analysis, we anticipated this increasingly pressing economic policy issue. Tariffs are indeed no first-best instrument to address climate change. By comparing the economic cost of action and the result in terms of emissions, we show that a uniform tariff stabilizing international trade at its initial level for 15 years would be 11 times less effective in curbing climate change than taxing carbon so that all countries meet their unconditional Nationally Determined Contributions. This result echoes the quantification proposed by Joseph Shapiro with a different model and scenarios.