Economics: Research Guide

This study advances the economic development scholarship through three key contributions. First, it examines the impact of distributional energy justice (hereafter referred to as energy justice) on inclusive human development (IHDI) in Africa. Second, we investigate how climate readiness moderates the effect of energy justice on IHDI. Third, we explore whether the joint effect of energy justice and climate readiness differs across low- and high-income African countries. We make these contributions using macro data for 36 African countries from 2010 to 2020. The results reveal that energy justice promotes IHDI. The contingency analysis also demonstrates that climate readiness amplifies the po..

This study advances the economic development scholarship through three key contributions. First, it examines the impact of distributional energy justice (hereafter referred to as energy justice) on inclusive human development (IHDI) in Africa. Second, we investigate how climate readiness moderates the effect of energy justice on IHDI. Third, we explore whether the joint effect of energy justice and climate readiness differs across low- and high-income African countries. We make these contributions using macro data for 36 African countries from 2010 to 2020. The results reveal that energy justice promotes IHDI. The contingency analysis also demonstrates that climate readiness amplifies the po..

The primary objective of this paper is to explore the determinants of the level of, and trends over time in, Japan's household saving rate, with emphasis on the impact of the age structure of the population, and to make projections about future trends therein. The paper finds that Japan's household saving rate has not always been high either absolutely or relative to other countries, contrary to popular belief, and that, if we confine ourselves to the postwar period, it was only during the 25-year period from 1961 to 1986 that it exceeded 15%. Past and future trends in Japan's household saving rate can largely be explained by changes in the age structure of her population, but declines in th..

The primary objective of this paper is to explore the determinants of the level of, and trends over time in, Japan's household saving rate, with emphasis on the impact of the age structure of the population, and to make projections about future trends therein. The paper finds that Japan's household saving rate has not always been high either absolutely or relative to other countries, contrary to popular belief, and that, if we confine ourselves to the postwar period, it was only during the 25-year period from 1961 to 1986 that it exceeded 15%. Past and future trends in Japan's household saving rate can largely be explained by changes in the age structure of her population, but declines in th..

This paper investigates the long-term impact of the 1920s forced displacement of Asia Minor refugees on contemporary health behaviors in Greece. Using regionally representative data from the 2019 Greek Health Survey and historical refugee settlement patterns, we find that individuals living in areas with higher historical shares of refugees are significantly more likely to engage in preventive health care, consult medical professionals, participate in physical activity, and maintain healthy dietary habits. These effects persist after controlling for socioeconomic, demographic, and geographic factors, and are robust to various specifications, including the exclusion of Attica, the main intern..

This paper investigates the long-term impact of the 1920s forced displacement of Asia Minor refugees on contemporary health behaviors in Greece. Using regionally representative data from the 2019 Greek Health Survey and historical refugee settlement patterns, we find that individuals living in areas with higher historical shares of refugees are significantly more likely to engage in preventive health care, consult medical professionals, participate in physical activity, and maintain healthy dietary habits. These effects persist after controlling for socioeconomic, demographic, and geographic factors, and are robust to various specifications, including the exclusion of Attica, the main intern..

Can fiscal autonomy affect per capita income levels? We empirically investigate the impact of fiscal autonomy on per capita income through the proper use of local financial resources. Exploiting a natural experiment in Italy, we compare municipalities in the Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano, which retain and manage almost all their tax revenues, with neighbouring municipalities in Lombardy and Veneto, where only a small fraction of revenues is autonomously managed. Using a spatial fuzzy regression discontinuity design, we estimate the effect of financial fiscal autonomy on per capita income. We address the potential endogeneity of financial fiscal autonomy with a dummy variable ide..

Can fiscal autonomy affect per capita income levels? We empirically investigate the impact of fiscal autonomy on per capita income through the proper use of local financial resources. Exploiting a natural experiment in Italy, we compare municipalities in the Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano, which retain and manage almost all their tax revenues, with neighbouring municipalities in Lombardy and Veneto, where only a small fraction of revenues is autonomously managed. Using a spatial fuzzy regression discontinuity design, we estimate the effect of financial fiscal autonomy on per capita income. We address the potential endogeneity of financial fiscal autonomy with a dummy variable ide..

Medium and low voltage distribution grids are at the core of the energy transition as they are expected to host a large share of renewables and flexible resources. Their modeling within decarbonization pathways is then of great importance in providing realistic future energy scenarios. This paper investigates different scenarios at the French national scale up to 2050 while varying the electricity demand, renewables installed in both transmission and distribution grids, and the considered flexibility technologies. The methodology relies on coupling a longterm energy model ( POLES) and an open-source short-term optimization framework (Backbone). POLES produces long-term decarbonization scenar..

Medium and low voltage distribution grids are at the core of the energy transition as they are expected to host a large share of renewables and flexible resources. Their modeling within decarbonization pathways is then of great importance in providing realistic future energy scenarios. This paper investigates different scenarios at the French national scale up to 2050 while varying the electricity demand, renewables installed in both transmission and distribution grids, and the considered flexibility technologies. The methodology relies on coupling a longterm energy model ( POLES) and an open-source short-term optimization framework (Backbone). POLES produces long-term decarbonization scenar..

We develop a real-options model to assess how the post-2023 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) income support scheme influences landholders’ investment behavior. The reformed CAP increased per-hectare support for small farms through redistributive payments linked to “first hectares†. Small farms respond to higher payments with more aggressive investment strategies. Instead large farms exhibit a nuanced response since higher basic payments encourage investments, but greater redistributive payments lead to more conservative behavior. These dynamics create a “pooling effect†around the farm-size threshold distinguishing large from small farms. Our analysis contributes ..

Most people consider parks important for their quality of life, yet systematic causal evidence is missing. We exploit exogenous variations in their use values to estimate causal effects. Using a representative household panel with precise geographical coordinates of households linked to satellite images of green spaces with a nationwide coverage, we employ a spatial difference-in-differences design, comparing within-individual changes between residents living close to a green space with those living further away. We exploit Covid-19 as exogenous shock. We find that green spaces raised overall life satisfaction while reducing symptoms of anxiety (feelings of nervousness and worry) and depress..

Fossil fuels represent a significant portion of the wealth of resource-rich nations. However, their valuation as non-renewable natural capital in inclusive or comprehensive wealth accounting to indicate sustainability does not embody the external costs of climate change damages. This study consistently incorporates the social cost of carbon (SCC) into the value of depletion of non-renewable natural capital for wealth accounting of resource-rich nations. We derive shadow prices of depletion under different resource allocation mechanisms (RAMs) in the presence of externality costs from emissions, allowing for declining extraction and an unburnable natural capital stock constraint. In our appli..

Industrial symbiosis fosters circularity by enabling firms to repurpose residual resources, yet its emergence is constrained by socio-spatial frictions that shape costs, matching opportunities, and market efficiency. Existing models often overlook the interaction between spatial structure, market design, and adaptive firm behavior, limiting our understanding of where and how symbiosis arises. We develop an agent-based model where heterogeneous firms trade byproducts through a spatially embedded double-auction market, with prices and quantities emerging endogenously from local interactions. Leveraging reinforcement learning, firms adapt their bidding strategies to maximize profit while accoun..

This chapter examines how multinational corporations (MNCs) collectively address plastic pollution in emerging economies through meta-organizations. While existing literature highlights the limitations of voluntary corporate action, we analyse how MNCs leverage collective platforms to promote Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and influence regulatory processes. Drawing on five case studies from West Africa and Southeast Asia, we show that subsidiaries of MNCs create meta-organizations that combine corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts with political action. At the inter-organizational level, these platforms support a specific form of mandatory regulation that we define as "hybri..

This paper examines divergent economic trajectories in Latin America between the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century through the lens of informal empire, fiscal policy, and institutional development. We construct a country–commodity panel covering the period 1850–1950 to assess the impact of foreign corporations on commodity production in seven Latin American countries—Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela—that experienced economic take-off under an export-led growth model. We find evidence that foreign corporations promoted key commodity exports, although these results are contingent on the inclusion of Venezuela’s oil indus..

This paper investigates the impact of Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) on income inequality across a broad set of European countries from 1995 to 2022, with a particular focus on the core-periphery divide. Applying both time series and panel data methodologies—including Vector Autoregressions (VAR), panel VAR, and local projections—we assess how economic uncertainty influences inequality dynamics. Our findings reveal three key insights. First, uncertainty shocks significantly affect income inequality in nearly all countries, and the effect is time-varying. Second, the effect is heterogenous across countries but varies: uncertainty tends to reduce inequality in core European co..

Women remain underrepresented in leadership, particularly in traditionally masculine work settings. At the same time, the visibility of this imbalance has led to growing calls for diversifying leadership. This research examines how both men and women contribute to the preservation or disruption of gender inequality in masculine organizational contexts. Men remain the gatekeepers of change—deciding who rises to the top and under what conditions—while women face the strategic dilemma of fitting in by downplaying inequality (supporting the status quo, sometimes called ‘queen bee behaviour’) or ‘rocking the boat’ by advocating social change (challenging the status quo). Across five e..

Health and well-being in mature adulthood are important concerns given the prevalence of individuals aging without children. We exploit two new instruments for childlessness—infertility and the number of childless siblings—and condition our analyses on a rich set of covariates including childhood health and financial status, to investigate the causal relationship between childlessness and health in middle age and older adulthood. Using a nationwide dataset of 1500 Singaporeans aged 50 and above, we show that OLS underestimates the negative effects of childlessness on health. We find that childlessness leads to higher likelihood of poorer self-reported health and mental distress. The resu..

Health and well-being in mature adulthood are important concerns given the prevalence of individuals aging without children. We exploit two new instruments for childlessness—infertility and the number of childless siblings—and condition our analyses on a rich set of covariates including childhood health and financial status, to investigate the causal relationship between childlessness and health in middle age and older adulthood. Using a nationwide dataset of 1500 Singaporeans aged 50 and above, we show that OLS underestimates the negative effects of childlessness on health. We find that childlessness leads to higher likelihood of poorer self-reported health and mental distress. The resu..

Household adoption of rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems is central to the green energy transition, yet diffusion depends on social influence and behavioral biases, as well as payback economics. This study develops a parsimonious Markovian model in which households move sequentially from being unengaged (“Carbon”) to informed, to planning, and finally to adoption (“Green”). Transition rates are micro-founded by two mechanisms: (i) social contagion/communication, proxied by the current share of adopters, and (ii) economic profitability, proxied by payback time computed from a Net Present Value framework. Novel to this diffusion setting, bounded rationality is introduced via hyperbolic ..

Household adoption of rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems is central to the green energy transition, yet diffusion depends on social influence and behavioral biases, as well as payback economics. This study develops a parsimonious Markovian model in which households move sequentially from being unengaged (“Carbon”) to informed, to planning, and finally to adoption (“Green”). Transition rates are micro-founded by two mechanisms: (i) social contagion/communication, proxied by the current share of adopters, and (ii) economic profitability, proxied by payback time computed from a Net Present Value framework. Novel to this diffusion setting, bounded rationality is introduced via hyperbolic ..

Highlights: • We used a national dataset of 500 sites monitored yearly from 2013 to 2018. • We analysed the effects of herbicides on plant margin communities. • Herbicides had a negative effect on richness and nature-value species. • Situations of risk for pesticides drift had a negative effect on margin flora. Abstract: Pesticides are often identified as one of the major causes of biodiversity decline in farmlands. However, our knowledge about this relationship has mostly being inferred from small to landscape-scale studies, or from indirect indicators of agricultural practices at large scales. Here, we used a national network of more than 500 sites monitored yearly from 2013 to 201..

Highlights: • We used a national dataset of 500 sites monitored yearly from 2013 to 2018. • We analysed the effects of herbicides on plant margin communities. • Herbicides had a negative effect on richness and nature-value species. • Situations of risk for pesticides drift had a negative effect on margin flora. Abstract: Pesticides are often identified as one of the major causes of biodiversity decline in farmlands. However, our knowledge about this relationship has mostly being inferred from small to landscape-scale studies, or from indirect indicators of agricultural practices at large scales. Here, we used a national network of more than 500 sites monitored yearly from 2013 to 201..

Highlights: • We used a national dataset of 500 sites monitored yearly from 2013 to 2018. • We analysed the effects of herbicides on plant margin communities. • Herbicides had a negative effect on richness and nature-value species. • Situations of risk for pesticides drift had a negative effect on margin flora. Abstract: Pesticides are often identified as one of the major causes of biodiversity decline in farmlands. However, our knowledge about this relationship has mostly being inferred from small to landscape-scale studies, or from indirect indicators of agricultural practices at large scales. Here, we used a national network of more than 500 sites monitored yearly from 2013 to 201..

We study how uneven gains from globalization can endogenously generate protectionism as a political equilibrium. Using U.S. data, we document that regions more exposed to import competition display stronger opposition to globalization, especially among households with little financial wealth, and that firms in trade-exposed sectors sharply increase lobbying expenditures. To interpret these patterns, we develop and quantify a general equilibrium Ricardian model with heterogeneous households, input–output linkages, and endogenous trade policy shaped by voting and lobbying. Distributional shocks reallocate political support among voters, while lobbying propagates through production networks, ..

We study how uneven gains from globalization can endogenously generate protectionism as a political equilibrium. Using U.S. data, we document that regions more exposed to import competition display stronger opposition to globalization, especially among households with little financial wealth, and that firms in trade-exposed sectors sharply increase lobbying expenditures. To interpret these patterns, we develop and quantify a general equilibrium Ricardian model with heterogeneous households, input–output linkages, and endogenous trade policy shaped by voting and lobbying. Distributional shocks reallocate political support among voters, while lobbying propagates through production networks, ..