Economics serving society

ERC Grants


ON-GOING


« Characterizing information integration in reinforcement learning : a neuro-computational investigation » (INFORL)

Dates: from 2021 to 2026.
This project, conducted by Maël Lebreton, aims at refining computational and neurobiological models of the learning process, but also shed new lights on maladaptive traits of human behaviour in social and clinical contexts.


« Towards a System of Distributional National Accounts » (DINA)

Dates: from 2020 to 2026.
Principal investigators: Thomas Piketty (PSE ; scientific advisor), Brian Nolan (University of Oxford), Emmanuel Saez (University of California).
Institutionnal framing: The Paris School of Economics will coordinate this project led by the World Inequality Lab (WIL). Thomas Piketty is the scientific advisor, with support from Facundo Alvaredo (PSE/EHESS) and Lucas Chancel (WIL/PSE). The OECD is associated to this project (proposal) as well, though the implication of Peter van de Ven. This project emphasizes on the recruitment of junior research fellows and will enable Gabriel Zucman, professor at the university of California, to be a visiting professor at PSE for a year.
>> Read more about this project (News of October 12, 2019, announcing the 37 ERC laureates)


« Gender and Health Inequalities : from embodiment to health care cascade » (GENDHI)

Dates: from 2020 to 2026.
Principal investigators: Nathalie Bajos (INSERM ; Senior Coordinator), Michelle Kelly-Irving (INSERM), Muriel Darmon (CNRS) and Pierre-Yves Geoffard (PSE).
Institutionnal framing: Coordinated by INSERM. PSE is a partner of the project and will recruit, notanly, a team of young researchers.
>> Read more about this project (News of October 12, 2019, announcing the 37 ERC laureates)


« Learning through categories in social and economic interactions » (LTCSEI)

Dates: from 2018 to 2022.
This project is conducted by Philippe Jehiel. There is growing evidence that economic agents are less sophisticated in forming their expectations than mainstream economic models assume. Allowing for richer models of expectation formation is of vital importance not only from a methodological viewpoint but also to improve our understanding of complex socio-economic phenomena such as bubbles, herd behaviour, social trust, deception or why citizens think their vote can make a difference in large elections.
>> Download the extended Synopsis of the scientific proposal


ARCHIVES


« Economics of ethnic prejudice » (Econ_Prejudice)

Dates: from November 2015 to October 2020.
This project, conducted by Ekaterina Zhuravskaya and funded by the European Research Council, examines how the salience of ethnic differences depends on economic and social context and policies of nation building. The research program is organized around 3 pillars focusing on social, economic, and political determinants of ethnic tensions, respectively.


« The Distribution and Redistribution of Income and Wealth: A Global and Historical Perspective » (DRIWGHP)

Dates: from January 2014 to December 2018.
This ERC project extends the historical and theoretical work on the long term dynamic distribution of income and wealth, conducted by Thomas Piketty and his colleagues over the past ten years. Thanks to the combined efforts of dozens of researchers, this work has already led to the constitution of the “World Top Incomes Database” ( WTID ). The WTID hosted by the Paris School of Economics, is the most extensive database currently available on the historical evolution of income inequalities. These datas have led to a radical questioning of Kuznets optimistic conclusions on the link between development and inequality.
One of the objectives of this new project is the transformation of WTID into a “World Wealth and Income Database” ( WWID ). The WWID, also hosted by PSE will deal both with wealth and income. WWID aims at publicizing yearly estimations - as detailed as possible - of the global distribution of wealth and its evolution. On these issues, the WWID wishes to become a focal point in the public debate.


« The Economics of Cultural Transmission and Applications to Communities, Organizations and Markets » (TECTACOM)

Dates: from May 2013 to April 2018.
This study, directed by Thierry Verdier, examines the economics approach to the trend in preferences and their cultural transmission, and its application to the functioning of communities, organisations and markets. The framework of the study is the dynamic model of populations in which the transmission of preferences is the result of a process of economic socialisation agents and external influences associated with the socio-economic context. Initially, the project will be a theoretical study of modelling of the motivations for cultural transmission, the transmission of beliefs and the context of those transmissions (geography, space and social networks). The second part of the project will apply the models to the persistence of antisocial behaviour in local communities, and to the conception and diffusion of a culture of enterprise in organisations.


« Demographic Uncertainty » (DU)

Dates :from March 2012 to February 2017.
Led by Hippolyte d’Albis, this project focuses on the integration of demographic variables into macro-economic models. The objective is to build tools that combine the latest theoretical advances in economics and demography, in order to quantify the economic effects of demographic changes, in particular the ageing of the population. This is an interdisciplinary project that aims particularly to take into account the effects of demographic uncertainty on the behaviour of actors and policy decisions.


« Game Theory and Applications in the Presence of Cognitive Limitations » (GTAPCL)

Dates : from January 2009 to December 2013
This project, directed by Philippe Jehiel, revisits a number of classic themes in economic theory, including theories of auctions and mechanisms, of reputation and of social apprenticeship, on the assumption that the actors have only an aggregate and hence crude knowledge of their environment. Practical experiments are undertaken to confirm the theoretical results.