Prix 2024:

• The 2024 AFSE PhD prize has been awarded to Guglielmo ZAPPALÀ

For his Dissertation entitled “Adaptation, beliefs, and impacts: Essays on the economics of climate” completed at the Paris School of Economics under the supervision of Katrin Millock.

More about Guglielmo ZAPPALÀ

Special mentions : 

The very high quality of the submitted theses also led the jury to award two special mentions (in alphabetical order) to Léa BOU SLEIMAN and Maxime BONELLI.

• Léa's PhD dissertation is entitled “Essays in Urban and Environmental Economics”. Her research has been carried out at Ecole Polytechnique de Paris under the co-supervision of Benoit Schmutz and Patricia Crifo.

More about Léa BOU SLEIMAN

• Maxime's PhD Dissertation is entitled  “Three essays on innovation and human capital in the investment management industry” - His Research has been carried out at HEC Paris under the supervision of Augustin Landier.

More about Maxime BONELLI

Prix 2023:

• The 2023 AFSE PhD prize has been awarded to Mathilde MUNOZ 

For her PhD Dissertation entitle "Essays on taxation and international worker mobility in Europe" - a research carried out at EHESS and Paris School of Economics under the supervision of Thomas Piketty and defended on June, 21, 2022

More about Mathilde MUNOZ

Special mentions : 

The very high quality of the submitted theses also led the jury to award two special mentions (in alphabetical order) to Lydia ASSOUAD and Yohan RENARD.

• Lydia's PhD dissertation is entitled "Essays on the Political Economy of Development of the Middle East". Her research has been carried out at EHESS under the co-supervision of Thomas Piketty and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya. 

More about Lydia ASSOUAD

• Yohan's PhD Dissertation is entitled "Improving Child Health in Sub-Saharan Africa; Three essays in Microeconometrics" - His Research has been carried out at Université Paris-Dauphine under the supervision of Marta Menéndez and Elodie Djemaï.

More about Yohan RENARD

Prix 2022:

Le Prix de thèse 2022 est attribué ex æquo à :

• Stéphane Benveniste (Aix-Marseille Université) pour sa thèse "Les Grandes Écoles au 20ème siècle, le champ des élites françaises : reproduction sociale, dynasties, réseaux" sous la direction d'Alain Trannoy.

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• Antoine Ferey (CREST, Ecole polytechnique) pour sa thèse "Essais sur le barème et la structure des systèmes socio-fiscaux " sous la direction de Pierre Boyer et Jean-Baptiste Michau.

Prix 2021:

The 2021 AFSE PhD Prize has been awarded “ex-aequo” to Mariona Segu (Université Paris-Saclay) under the supervision of Gabrielle Fack and Miren Lafourcade and Thomas Douenne (Paris School of Economics) under the supervision of Katheline Schubert.  In addition to the high quality of both theses, the jury also appreciated the relevance of their work and the policy implications that can be drawn from their topical issues.

• Mariona’s thesis entitled “Three essays on local housing markets” explores three aspects of the real estate market that have received little attention so far: the effects on house prices of tourism development such as peer-to-peer accommodation and an increase in the number of tourists travelling by air. She also studies the impact of the tax on vacant dwellings on the vacancy rate.

• Thomas’ thesis “Essais sur l’économie des politiques environnementales : préférences, croyances, et redistribution ” helps to better understand citizens' attitudes towards environmental policies. His work shows the paradox facing environmental policies: citizens care about the environment and the climate and support the implementation of ambitious climate policies, but at the same time they oppose the carbon tax. Thomas addresses the possible explanations for this paradox.

• The very high quality of the submitted theses also led the jury to award a special mention to Raphaël Lardeux (Université Paris 2) for his thesis entitled “Économie Publique Comportementale avec Agents Hétérogènes”, supervised by Etienne Lehmann.

See the short-listed theses.

Prix 2020:

The 2020 AFSE PhD Prize has been awarded “ex-aequo” to Laura Khoury (Paris School of Economics ) and Tomáš Jagelka (École Polytechnique – CREST). 

• Laura Khoury completed her thesis entitled “Optimal Unemployment Insurance and On-the-Job Behaviours” under the supervision of Luc Behaghel. This excellent piece of work focuses on the impact of unemployment insurance on the behaviour of employers or workers still in employment.  The thesis is based on three empirical studies, which examine the effect of different unemployment insurance programs on labour supply, in both employment and unemployment, on insurance choices and on the structure contracts. In particular, the thesis provides some answers to the following two research questions: why are unemployment insurance schemes mandated at the national level? What is the optimal level of insurance to be established?  Although the work presented in this thesis is essentially empirical in nature, the jury also greatly appreciated the author’s underlying theoretical analyses. Finally, Laura’s work produces conclusions of direct relevance to the economic policy and could contribute to improving the architecture of the unemployment insurance system in France.

• Tomáš Jagelka’s thesis entitled “Preferences, Ability and Personality: Understanding Decision-making Under Risk and Delay” was conducted under the supervision of Christian Belzil. This very high quality work falls into the field of applied micro-economy with interests in experimental economics, behavioral economics, and empirical industrial organization. The thesis notably aims at establishing a formal mapping between factors related to three of the Big Five personality traits and cognitive ability on the one hand and risk aversion, discount rates, and parameters governing their stability and individuals' propensity to make mistakes on the other hand. The results suggest that preferences and personality do not simply function side by side but that they are strongly related. The jury was impressed by the quality and originality of the work carried out, regarding both its purpose and the methodology used.

Prix 2019:

 The 2019 AFSE PhD Prize has been awarded to Tidiane Ly for his thesis entitled “Tax competition within Metropolitan areas”, conducted at the University of Lyon 2 under the supervision of Florence Goffette-Nagot and Sonia Paty. The thesis focuses on the importance of accounting for economic agents’ mobility in the analysis of policy choices of local governments. Specifically, considering the level of municipalities, counties, districts and townships, Tidiane investigates how do competing local governments choose their various policy instruments when they face high mobility of capital, residents and workers. The jury was really impressed by the originality, the quality and the rigor of the work carried out. The jury also greatly appreciated Tidiane’s wish to provide policy recommendations from his theoretical investigations and findings. Indeed, his thesis helps municipalities and lower-level jurisdictions in their policy instrument choice, and suggests that reforming the local institutional context requires to account for the specific responses of local governments.

The very high quality of the submitted theses also led the jury to award two special mentions (in alphabetical order):

• Samuel Ligonnière for his thesis entitled “Financial Cycles: Determinants and Policy Implications”, conducted at the University of Lille under the supervision of Jérôme Héricourt* and Farid Toubal. This thesis falls into the field of international financial macroeconomics by investigating the determinants and consequences of national and international financial cycles. Samuel shows that inequality and debt maturity structure are the main determinants of national financial cycles, and demonstrates how rising inequality leads to an excessive leverage of low- and middle-income households. In addition to the high quality of the work, the jury also appreciated the candidate’s desire to draw economic policy recommendations from his empirical results.

• Pauline Morault for her thesis entitled “Three essays on social structure and its implications”, conducted at the University of Aix Marseille under the supervision of Yann Bramoullé. The thesis underlines the importance of the social structure in analyzing and understanding various economic, social and political outcomes. She pays particular attention to marriages by considering (i) political elite and economic elites composed of a rich ethnic minority, as well as (ii) societies characterized by arranged marriages. Again, beyond the quality of the thesis, the jury was impressed by its originality and its contribution to the theoretical literature on marriages.

Prix 2018: 

This 2018 AFSE PhD Prize has been awarded to Clémentine Van Effenterre for her thesis entitled “Essays on gender norms and inequality”, conducted at Paris School of Economics under the supervision of Thomas Piketty. The jury was impressed by the quality and originality of the work carried out, regarding both its purpose and the methodology used, since the thesis notably aims at explaining the mechanisms of segregation related to gender by the preferences of women themselves. The subject is also a hot-debated topic, and greatly contributes to ongoing debates on inequalities.

The very high quality of the theses submitted also led the jury to award two special mentions (in alphabetical order):

• Marion Dupoux for her thesis entitled “Structure of preferences, decision-making and the environment. Theoretical and experimental approaches”, conducted at the University of Paris Nanterre under the supervision of Alain Ayong Le Kama and Vincent Martinet. This thesis honors the field of environmental economics by seeking to help decision-making vis-à-vis projects having environmental impacts. In addition to the high quality of the work, the jury also appreciated the candidate’s desire to draw economic policy recommendations from her theoretical models and results.

• Justine Pedrono for her thesis entitled “Banking stability and currency diversification”, conducted at Aix Marseille School of Economics under the supervision of Agnès Bénassy-Quéré* and Patrick Pintus. Again, beyond the quality of the thesis, the jury was impressed by its originality since the literature on the role of internationalization of bank balance sheets in the stability of banks is still scarce. The thesis also harmoniously mixes theoretical and empirical approaches, with the aim of delivering some recommendations in terms of regulation.

By awarding the AFSE Prize and the Special Mentions to three female economists, this 2018 vintage of prize demonstrates the potential of young women researchers to take a major role in our profession. The jury wishes them all the success they deserve for their future careers.

* Note: Agnès Bénassy-Quéré did not participate in the AFSE jury discussion and vote on Justine’s thesis.