Working Papers
How Do Households Adjust Food Purchases to Fuel Prices Shocks? Evidence from France (with Fabrice Etilé)
Shocks in energy prices impact households' disposable income and welfare, with consequences for the acceptance of environmental policies. We examine how households adjust food consumption to such shocks, by estimating the effects of fuel prices on food purchasing patterns in France. Using homescan data, we find an elasticity of total food expenditure of approximately -0.3, mainly through reductions in the unit value of products. We highlight that households adjust more on unit value for fresh fruits and vegetables, and more on volumes for animal proteins and alcohol. They adjust their purchase patterns by restricting the frequency of shopping trips, visiting hard discount stores, substituting among, and buying in bulk. Low-income households do not adjust significantly to fuel price shocks, likely because they have already largely exploited these adjustment margins. Thus, they are directly affected by any abrupt increase in fuel prices.
The Gender Gap in Transportation and Food Carbon Footprints (with Marion Leroutier)
Grantham Research Institute WP
Understanding the distribution of carbon emissions across population groups is crucial for designing fair and acceptable climate policies. We uncover a significant gender gap in carbon footprints using individual-level data from France on food consumption and transport use, two categories representing half of individuals' emissions, matched with product-level emission intensities. Women's footprints are 26% lower than men's on average. The gap is found among couples and singles, and narrows to 18% when controlling for socioeconomic characteristics. Women's lower emissions are not only explained by their lower calorie requirements and shorter distances traveled: 25% of the food emissions gap and 38% of the transport emission gap remain unexplained after accounting for socioeconomic factors and the scale of consumption. Emissions from red meat and cars, two high-pollution goods, make up a disproportionate share of the residual gap, highlighting the potential role of consumption preferences and occupational choices tied to gender identity.
Media Coverage: The Guardian, Der Spiegel, France2 JT (min 26), Le Monde, Libération, France Culture, Euronews, TF1
Unequal Progress and Barriers for Women in Economics (with Oliver Harman & Ninon Moreau-Kastler) Submitted
This paper emphasises the evolution of gender inequalities in economics. Our analysis of recent literature and data highlights that the reduction in gender inequality has been heterogeneous, with the most significant changes being observed at the higher ranks, leaving substantial gaps at other levels. We explore how understanding the nuances of women's behaviours and career choices, alongside recognising and mitigating gender biases in evaluation and workplace environments, contributes to this progress. Our discussion extends to the labour market for economists, drawing parallels with broader labour trends and examining how gender-biased treatment and hiring processes impact women's advancement. We then turn to policy interventions instrumental in promoting gender balance, focusing on networks, mentorship, role models, and representation. This comprehensive review aims to elucidate the multifaceted approach needed to continue advancing gender equality in economics.
Media Coverage: Financial Times
Work in Progress
Households' Food Carbon Footprints
Food consumption is a significant contributor to households' carbon footprints. However, consumer heterogeneity in food-related carbon footprints remains underexplored, primarily due to limited data linking real-world consumption choices to environmental impacts. I address this gap by matching detailed purchase data with environmental impact estimates at the transaction level for a representative sample of 7,540 French households between 2017 and 2019. Using this unique dataset, I provide a comprehensive overview of the distribution of food carbon footprints and employ a structural demand model to estimate how price and expenditure changes influence food basket composition and carbon emissions. The analysis reveals three key insights. 1) There is heterogeneity in the distribution of food carbon footprints, with 20% of households accounting for 40% of total food emissions. 2) Households with higher carbon footprints are more price-sensitive, particularly regarding high-emission products like red meat. 3) Simulations indicate that a 44.60€/tCO2 eq. food carbon tax would reduce food-related emissions (8.5%), especially among high-emission households. While modest carbon tax levels appear effective at reducing emissions, they may also lead to a trade-off between lowering emissions and preserving diet quality.
Junk Food, Leisure, and Income Inequalities (with Eve Colson-Sihra, Hugo Molina, and Emmanuel Paroissien)
Many studies have documented that high-income households tend to adopt diets of higher nutritional quality, ceteris paribus. Guided by the fact that the "liking for sweet taste is both innate and universal'' (Drewnowski et al., 1997) and differences in supply conditions only explain a small share of diet inequalities (Allcott et al., 2019), we investigate a driver of food preferences that has not been explored yet: income enables households to substitute the pleasure derived from tasty (but unhealthy) foods with expensive leisure activities. We start by leveraging the latest wave of the French Consumer Expenditure Survey data to describe the income gradient in demand for leisure and healthy food. We document a positive correlation between income, diet quality, and out-of-home leisure. To evidence causality, we leverage food transaction data to estimate the effects of 2020 COVID-19-related lockdowns that can be seen as a large negative shock on out-of-home leisure, affecting disproportionately high-income households (who demand more leisure). Our results show that during the lockdown, higher-income households experienced a larger relative decline in diet quality, supporting the hypothesis that out-of-home leisure and unhealthy food consumption are substitutes. These findings highlight the role of income in shaping food choices and contribute to the literature on nutritional inequalities.
The Effects of Social Food Security: A Randomized Experiment among Students in Higher Education (with Bénédicte Apouey, Simon Briole, and Damien Mayaux)
Preregistered trial at AEA registry: https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15529-1.3