Publications in peer-reviewed journals
Over-allocation profits, inefficiencies and competition issues: a close-up into the interaction between the EU-ETS and the steel industry
Forthcoming in Revue Economique, with Maria-Eugenia Sanin (University of Paris Saclay), 2022 - last version available upon request
Abstract: Sectors that are considered to be subject to international competition under the European Emission Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) still benefit from free allocation of European Allowances (EUAs). Herein we study one of those beneficiaries: the crude steel industry. Firstly, we find it is not strongly exposed to international competition. Moreover, we find that the relevant market is concentrated and that the firm with most market power throughout 2005-2018 is the one receiving most of free EUAs capturing most of the overallocation profits (34.87% in average). Finally, after performing a frontier analysis we find that the market leader is also the least efficient in producing crude steel and consequently the least efficient in terms of CO2 intensity. These findings suggest the EU-ETS has failed to provide incentives for decarbonization in this sector.
Waste management, recycling and employment quality (article in french)
Forthcoming in Travail et Emploi, with Olivier Baguelin and Jean De Beir (University of Paris Saclay), 2022 - last version available upon request
Abstract: Waste management is central in the process of ecological transition: studying this sector is therefore especially useful to understand the challenges at play Focusing [GR1] [SS2] on employment[JDB3] , this article applies data mining to Insee sectoral statistics (Esane and Alisse) in order to conduct a comparative analysis, over the 2010 decade, of various waste management activities. We consider more specifically two activities with opposite ecological implications: the treatment and disposal industry (landfilling or incineration, brown mode) and the materials recovery and recycling industry (green mode). Despite public interventions in favour of the latter, it exhibited a lower quality of employment. This was probably due to economies of scale benefiting the treatment-disposal compared to the recovery-recycling industry. Those economies of scale improved labour productivity and capital returns and encouraged investment by profit-oriented operators. Over the 2010 decade, while both activities shared a slow pace employment growth, the treatment-disposal industry concentrated its wage bill on skilled workers and technicians, in connection with efforts[JDB1] to equip the sector for energy production. Our study therefore brings to the fore the role of equipment investment explaining the employment quality gap between the treatment-disposal brown industry on the one hand and the treatment-disposal green industry on the other.
The effect of recycling on a mining oligopoly: Competition for market shares and collusion for market power
with Jean De Beir and Thaï Ha-Huy (University of Paris Saclay), Revue Economique, 2023, Vol.74, pp 81-113 - available here
Abstract: As an alternative to the production of virgin materials, recycling brings competition in a market dominated by an oligopoly of mining firms. Herein we investigate how recyclers affect the supply of materials in terms of market share and market power. An oligopoly of non-cooperative firms takes decisions about the level of extraction, knowing that this will affect the competition capacity of a fringe of competitive recyclers in the future. Hence, the mining firms are considered as leaders, and the market is completed by recyclers being considered as followers. The competition between mining firms as well as between the two sectors is described in a Cournot-Stackelberg model. We show the positive effect depending on the small number of mining firms and their aggregated market share and prove that a technology threshold is required to allow recyclers to enter the market and compete. Furthermore, we highlight that a significant switch in market shares and a decrease in the market power only arise when the levels of the recycling technology and the availability of scrap are both at a high level, while they vary a lot among countries and materials.
The Global Iron and Steel Industry: From a Bilateral Oligopoly to a Thwarted Monopsony
The Australian Economic Review, 2018, Vol. 51, pp 232-243 - available here
Abstract: China's growing urbanisation and the speed of development of its manufacturing industry has led to a shock in steel demand. This article analyses the evolution of the market structure and the related market power shift. From a stable situation in which a few steelmakers negotiated with a few mining firms to set an annual price, the market has evolved to a new price‐fixing regime as a result of supply–demand confrontation. A new composition of stakeholders in the iron and steel sectors has emerged, transitioning from an oligopoly to a thwarted monopsony.
Policy papers and reports
Sectoral Transition Plan for the French steel industry, with Elliot Mari and Quentin Minier (ADEME), forthcoming
Sectoral Transition Plan for the French ammonia industry, with Antoine Deswaziere (ADEME), forthcoming
Sectoral Transition Plan for the French aluminium industry, with Elliot Mari (ADEME), 44p, 2023 - summary report available here
An analysis of key implemention questions of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), with Oliver Sartor (Agora Energiewende), 37p, 2022 - available in french here, and in english upon request
Sectoral Transition Plan for the French cement industry, with Elliot Mari (ADEME), 40p, 2021 - summary report available here
Transition(s) 2050 : 4 scenarios to achieve carbon neutrality, ADEME as contributor for the industry part, 2021 - available here
Other contributions
Dictionnaire historique de la sidérurgie française - fiche "Le recyclage dans le sidérurgie française", Publication Université Provence, sous la direction de Philippe Mioche, Eric Godelier, Ivan Kharaba et Pascal Raggi, août 2022 - available here
Financer la décarbonation des industriels pour une empreinte réduite des matériaux des villes et territoires, Construction 21, avec Elliot Mari (ADEME), juillet 2022 - available here
Appliquer la taxonomie européenne: le cas du financement de la décarbonation de l'industrie cimentière, Cahiers de Droit de l'Entreprise, avec Charlotte Gardes (International Monetary Fund) and Stephane Voisin (Institut Louis Bachelier), février 2022 - available here