Standard economics has been the subject of many critiques. Mainstream economic models and analysis rely on a level of sophistication that is hard to justify from an introspective viewpoint but also considering the large body of experimental evidence. Recent years have witnessed a flurry of alternative approaches. The programme proposes reviewing a large body of these approaches, with the goal of stimulating new research both theoretical and applied.

Workshop: Participants will have an opportunity to submit work to be presented and discussed by fellow participants and faculty in daily workshops.

Graduate in economics with a solid background in economic theory, decision theory and game theory.... [-]

Climate change impacts on the economy (on agriculture, income, migrations) and appropriate regulation of « the greatest externality the world has ever seen », as the Stern Review puts it, are increasingly at the center of the policy and scientific debate.

This PSE summer school program aims at teaching participants the cutting-edge research on the topic and to familiarize them with the relevant methods to analyze the issue (econometric analysis, dynamic modelling). How do we measure the impacts of climate change on economic outcomes? How do we model a dynamic externality? What are the relevant economic instruments to combat climate change in a globalized world?

The course is divided in three parts:... [-]

Institutions and social frictions (associated with inequalities, political conflicts, corruption, and cultural polarization) have emerged as central themes in development economics. This course takes stock of existing research and moves on to draw the outline of the current research frontier. How do institutions shape the development process?

How do understudied informal institutions, such as identities and customs, interact with formal institutions? How do we interpret recent trends in inequality within low- and middle-income countries? What do these trends teach us about institutions and development?

The programme approaches these questions by drawing on formal theory and rigorous empirical research in two core modules: “Inequality and development” and “Institutions and Social Frictions”. In addition, three shorter modules develop empirical applications of the core course themes. These modules cover the role of historical legacies, conflict, corruption, and media in economic development. The objective of the programme is to equip you with the background and tools you need as a researcher to contribute to this dynamic field.... [-]

While experiments have been considered for long as a specific domain within economics (“experimental economics”), the experimental method is now widely considered as a tool among others in the typical economist’s toolbox. Its use has shed light on many areas, on the theoretical side (decision theory, game theory, markets) as on the more applied and descriptive ones (policy, development, labor econ., IO, health econ., etc.). It has led to the blossoming of “behavioral economics”, but its general relevance goes much deeper than that. The purpose of this program is to provide young researchers with the methodological skills required to pursue experiments in their own research, with a strong focus on lab experiment.... [-]

“… I have begun to be somewhat merry because I have been told that that is good for one’s health.” (Voltaire, Letter to the Abbé Trublet, 1761)

This program is designed to provide an overview of facts, questions, and models at the frontier of research in health economics and economics of well-being. Health and well-being are closely related concepts. Indeed, economists often use self-reported measures of well-being as a proxy for utility. In this approach, well-being is considered as an aggregate of satisfactions in several domains, including mental and physical health, but also income, social life, housing, and leisure, in particular. Interestingly, among these domains, people give a disproportionate weight to health and income in well-being. For this reason, health and well-being need to be studied together.... [-]

This program will consist of three main topics in Industrial Organization: Competition Policy, Economics of Platforms, and new empirical aspects of industry dynamics and productivity. The program offers a blend of theory and empirics.

Competition Policy is obviously a large and diverse subject. We decided to consider this year two main aspects of it.

Philippe Gagnepain will discuss the empirical side of the topic. He will develop the main techniques used to assess market power, cartel damages and to carry out merger simulations. His presentation will be both up-to-date and comprehensive with a particular attention to the applications to cases.... [-]

The Macroeconomic Analysis and Policy module is made of courses dealing with topics at the frontier of policy-relevant research: monetary and fiscal policy; heterogeneous households, inequality and redistribution (“HANK” models); financial crises; bubbles; labor markets and unemployment; and international linkages.

The courses are taught by leading research and teaching figures in their respective fields. Emphasis is put on introducing tools and developing intuition. All courses review core, standard models useful for understanding crises and recessions, and the role of policy therein. Each course contains at least one part that deals with recent research at the frontier... [-]

The Microeconometrics and Policy Evaluation programme presents recent developments in the microeconomic analysis of impact evaluation, with two courses taught by experts in their fields.

Providing a credible estimation of a causal effect has become a standard in economic analysis, both in research papers and policy reports. But it is also equally important to integrate the estimated effects into economic models, in order to improve the design of policies. The programme therefore proposes a comprehensive approach of policy analysis.

The first course, Methods of policy evaluation introduces the main methods currently used for program evaluation, with practical classes guiding students through the implementation of the different techniques in Stata. Going one step further, the second course, Linking program evaluation to economic theory, presents recent advances in applied microeconomics that fully integrate impact evaluation into economic analysis.... [-]

Migration is a major aspect of globalization and is increasingly at the center of the public and policy debate. This course aims to present the cutting-edge research on the economics of migration and to provide the tools to contribute to this field. The course is divided in 3 parts:

The first part of the course (taught by David McKenzie) addresses the challenge of identifying the microeconomic impacts of migration. It discusses the various channels through which migration has a measurable impact on the migrant household, the key obstacles to being able to attribute effects to migration itself, and different empirical methods that can be used to identify the impacts of migration.... [-]

This programme addresses recent debates at the frontier of the field: globalization, the distributive effects of trade, the role of large firms in the global economy, advances in methods to analyze firm-level export data and finally the revival of trade policies:

- Recent Developments in Trade Policy Analysis (Anne-Célia Disdier, PSE) - 6 h- Advanced Methods for Firm Level Trade Data (Maria Bas, Université Paris 1) - 6 h- Large Firms in the Global Economy (Mathieu Parenti, ULB) - 9 h- Trade and Income Distribution (Ariell Reshef, PSE) - 9 h

Participants will have the opportunity to submit a paper to be presented within this program. Selected papers will be presented in front of participants and faculty in daily one-hour slots.... [-]