European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics
News
FNRS.awards : Baptiste Souillard, Winner of the McKinsey & Company Scientific Award
6 July 2023Baptiste Souillard, postdoctoral researcher at the ULB and former FNRS aspirant, was awarded the McKinsey & Company Scientific Prize for his doctoral thesis in social, economic and management sciences, entitled: “Essays on international trade and corporate tax optimization”.“Very honored to receive this interdisciplinary research award, and very happy that tax optimization has finally become a …
Dimitri KONEN won the Antonella Karlson Prize 2023

Dimitri KONEN, FNRS candidate at ULB, has been awarded the Antonella Karlson Prize 2023 for his doctoral thesis in the field of mathematics.“I am very pleased to be the recipient of the Antonella Karlson Prize for my research in mathematical statistics. As a young researcher, obtaining recognition for thesis work is very encouraging and motivating …
Continue reading "Dimitri KONEN won the Antonella Karlson Prize 2023"
Mathias Dewatripont has been awarded the title of Foreign Honorary Member of the American Economic Association

The Foreign Honorary Members award is presented to foreign economists of distinction. Honorees are elected by the American Economic Association’s Executive Committee upon recommendation from the Honors and Awards Committee. American Economic Association (aeaweb.org)
Publications

Working paper : Welfare Effects of Indirect Tax Policies in West Africa (2023-19)
Bart Capéau , Alain Babatoundé & Romain Houssa

Working paper : A Spouse and a House are all we need? Housing Demand, Labor Supply and Divorce over the Lifecycle (2023-18)
Bram De Rock , Mariia Kovaleva & Tom Potoms

Working paper : Walk the Talk: Measuring Green Preferences with Social Media Data (2023-17)
Bram De Rock & Florine Le Henaff

Working paper : The Unintended Consequences of Trade Protection on the Environment (2023-16)
Taipeng LI , Lorenzo Trimarchi , Rui XIE & Guohao YANG

Working paper : Dynamic Factor Models: a Genealogy (2023-15)
Matteo Barigozzi & Marc Hallin
Calendar
- 5 December 2023
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Tommaso Valletti, Imperial College Business School
05 Dec, 14:00 - 15:15“Cultural Exception? The Impact of Price Regulation on Prices andVariety in the Italian Book Market”
Christos Genakos, Mario Pagliero, Lorien Sabatino andTommaso Valletti
Abstract
Fixed book price (FBP)agreements are a form of resale price maintenance commonly applied to books invarious countries. FBP restricts retail price competition with the aim ofpromoting book production variety. Yet, despite its popularity and applicationin many countries, there is no empirical evidence on its effects. We offersystematic evidence on the impact of FBP on book variety and prices using adetailed new dataset from Italy that includes the universe of books publishedand bought, before and after the introduction of FBP. Our results indicate thatFBP raises prices without significantly affecting the number of new bookspublished in the marketplace. However, it also increases considerably thevariety of books actually bought, especially from independent bookstores. We estimate a structural model of demand that accounts for both effects,finding that consumers overall benefited from the regulation.
Location:Dec
05“Cultural Exception? The Impact of Price Regulation on Prices andVariety in the Italian Book Market”
Christos Genakos, Mario Pagliero, Lorien Sabatino andTommaso Valletti
Abstract
Fixed book price (FBP)agreements are a form of resale price maintenance commonly applied to books invarious countries. FBP restricts retail price competition with the aim ofpromoting book production variety. Yet, despite its popularity and applicationin many countries, there is no empirical evidence on its effects. We offersystematic evidence on the impact of FBP on book variety and prices using adetailed new dataset from Italy that includes the universe of books publishedand bought, before and after the introduction of FBP. Our results indicate thatFBP raises prices without significantly affecting the number of new bookspublished in the marketplace. However, it also increases considerably thevariety of books actually bought, especially from independent bookstores. We estimate a structural model of demand that accounts for both effects,finding that consumers overall benefited from the regulation.
Tommaso Valletti, Imperial College Business School
Tuesday, 14:00 - 15:15
Location:
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- 7 December 2023
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Emilio Zanetti Chini, University of Bergamo
07 Dec, 12:30 - 13:30Efficient Transport-based Estimation of Time-Varying Factor Models
The study of economic policies in the economy and financerequires efficient reduction of datasets into informative unobserved factors(UF) to account for agents' expectations and forecast future behavior.Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a widely used statistical method for thispurpose. Recently the statistical and econometric literature is focusing on theimplication of the use of Optimal-Transport (OT) as a tool for implementing theprecision of data reduction when data are particularly complex. We discuss thepitfall of two nove PCA-based methods: NIPCA (Nonlinear Independent ComponentAnalysis) and Target PCA (T-PCA). The former, despite its superiorcapability of fitting and reducing data under nonlinear representation, is computationally intensive. Moreover, it is based on a two-phase/hybridapproach. The latter, uses a linear factor structure with novel theoreticalcontributions relating the informativeness of datasets directly to the factors.However, it assumes informativeness, observability, and constancy of thefactors. We argue that a UF parametrization à la Mikkelsen et al. (2019)combined with modified NIPCA can address these problems. Namely, we propose analgorithm that combines Brenier mapping and diagonalization as a potentialsolution.
Location:Dec
07Efficient Transport-based Estimation of Time-Varying Factor Models
The study of economic policies in the economy and financerequires efficient reduction of datasets into informative unobserved factors(UF) to account for agents' expectations and forecast future behavior.Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a widely used statistical method for thispurpose. Recently the statistical and econometric literature is focusing on theimplication of the use of Optimal-Transport (OT) as a tool for implementing theprecision of data reduction when data are particularly complex. We discuss thepitfall of two nove PCA-based methods: NIPCA (Nonlinear Independent ComponentAnalysis) and Target PCA (T-PCA). The former, despite its superiorcapability of fitting and reducing data under nonlinear representation, is computationally intensive. Moreover, it is based on a two-phase/hybridapproach. The latter, uses a linear factor structure with novel theoreticalcontributions relating the informativeness of datasets directly to the factors.However, it assumes informativeness, observability, and constancy of thefactors. We argue that a UF parametrization à la Mikkelsen et al. (2019)combined with modified NIPCA can address these problems. Namely, we propose analgorithm that combines Brenier mapping and diagonalization as a potentialsolution.
Emilio Zanetti Chini, University of Bergamo
Thursday, 12:30 - 13:30
Location:
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- 8 December 2023
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Dec
08Etienne Le Rossignol, Université de Namur
Friday, 12:15 - 13:15
Location:
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- 12 December 2023
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Dec
12Fabio Sabatini, Sapienza Roma
Tuesday, 14:00 - 15:15
Location:
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- 14 December 2023
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Hybrid Conference : How to Move from Inequality to Shared Prosperity?
14 Dec, 12:00 - 19:00Location:Dec
14Hybrid Conference : How to Move from Inequality to Shared Prosperity?
Thursday, 12:00 - 19:00
Location:
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Ross Levine, Berkeley Hass
14 Dec, 16:30 - 19:30Our seminarspeaker, Ross Levine, informed us that he is unable to travel and thus cancelshis trip to Europe and the visit to the NBB (scheduled for October 19). For thesame personal reasons, he is also not in the possibility to hold the seminaronline on the scheduled day.
He agreed,however, to an ONLINE seminar on Thursday December14, 2023 at 4.30pm CET.
It can be followed byclicking on the MSTeams link in the attached .ics calendar invitation (which you can add to your calendar).
The topicwill remain the same: “Credit market conditions and mental health”
“Research offersconflicting predictions about the impact of credit conditions on mental health.We first assess howbank regulatory reforms that improved credit conditions, e.g., by enhancing theefficiency of credit allocation and lowering lending rates, impacted mentalhealth. We discover that among low-income individuals, these regulatory reformsreduced mental depression, boosted labor market outcomes, eased access tomortgage debt, and reduced the ranks of the “unbanked.” We also find thatmergers of large regional banks that led to branch closures and tighter creditconstraints in affected counties harmed the mental health of lower-incomeindividuals in treated counties.”
(joint work with QingHu, Chen Lin, and Mingzhu Tai)
Location:Dec
14Our seminarspeaker, Ross Levine, informed us that he is unable to travel and thus cancelshis trip to Europe and the visit to the NBB (scheduled for October 19). For thesame personal reasons, he is also not in the possibility to hold the seminaronline on the scheduled day.
He agreed,however, to an ONLINE seminar on Thursday December14, 2023 at 4.30pm CET.
It can be followed byclicking on the MSTeams link in the attached .ics calendar invitation (which you can add to your calendar).
The topicwill remain the same: “Credit market conditions and mental health”
“Research offersconflicting predictions about the impact of credit conditions on mental health.We first assess howbank regulatory reforms that improved credit conditions, e.g., by enhancing theefficiency of credit allocation and lowering lending rates, impacted mentalhealth. We discover that among low-income individuals, these regulatory reformsreduced mental depression, boosted labor market outcomes, eased access tomortgage debt, and reduced the ranks of the “unbanked.” We also find thatmergers of large regional banks that led to branch closures and tighter creditconstraints in affected counties harmed the mental health of lower-incomeindividuals in treated counties.”
(joint work with QingHu, Chen Lin, and Mingzhu Tai)
Ross Levine, Berkeley Hass
Thursday, 16:30 - 19:30
Location:
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- 15 December 2023
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Dec
15PhD workshop Day
Friday, 00:00 - 23:59
Location:
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Dec
15Bastien Bernon, ECARES
Friday, 12:15 - 13:15
Location:
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- 18 January 2024
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Jan
18Phd Lectures - Prof. Xavier D’Haultfoeuille (CREST-ENSAE)
Thursday, 08:00 - 18:00
Location:
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- 19 January 2024
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Jan
18Phd Lectures - Prof. Xavier D’Haultfoeuille (CREST-ENSAE)
Thursday, 08:00 - 18:00
Location:
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