Public Outreach

Only in French | In The Conversation, Stéphane Benveniste (INED / AMSE) talks about the chances of admission to French Grandes Ecoles... much higher for the children of former graduates.

What do the Sahara Desert and Paris’ 16th arrondissement have in common? Both are located above a somewhat unusual water table: when you dig a hole in it, the water gushes out all on its own! The economists Hubert Stahn and Agnes Tomini examine this astonishing geological phenomenon in which the number of open wells does not impact the quantity of water in the water table, but rather the pressure that compresses its volume.

To what point does visiting a natural habitat modify the importance we give it? Does the value we give a place increase if, with each visit, we have a better academic and personal understanding of it? To respond to these questions, the researchers M. Maki Sy, H. Rey-Valette, C. Figuières, M. Simier, and R. de Wit examined the Palavas lagoons complex near Montpellier, France. The result of their study is undeniable: in most cases, an individual’s familiarity with a habitat changes his preferences. Scientific understanding also changes an individual’s preferences, but in a different way. Let’s discover how!

Social norms and interactions lie at the heart of our existence as humans, impacting all aspects of our lives. This makes made them a factor to be considered in many sciences. Yet, many economic models , trivialise them or even neglect them, in contrast to how the real world works. Therefore, three economists, Marc Fleurbaey, Ravi Kanbur, and Dennis Snower, are trying to change this perspective and bring the economy into a wider social game.

Finding the right treatment for each patient is the very foundation of Healthcare. If we push this principle to the extreme, precision medicine is one of the best ways to fight cancer.

In the fight against crime, private and public actors in security and protection work hand in hand. What good would a security camera do if it were not connected to a local police station? Are the police more useful to people who have cameras? The researchers Tanguy van Ypersele, Steeve Mongrain, Joanne Roberts, and Ross Hickey came up with a model that analyzes the link between public and private security.

Why did medieval inheritance rules prioritize men over women? Èric Roca Fernández uses a mathematical simulation to demonstrate how the systematic preference for men in inheritance rules helped European feudal fiefdoms transform into modern states.

Is the French education system a rather average performer? According to the PISA ranking, this seems to be the case. But this ranking, which ranks education systems based on the average scores of their 15-year-old pupils, has its limitations. The economists Nicolas Gravel, Edward Levavasseur, and Patrick Moyes have therefore taken a new look at the PISA ranking by accounting for inequalities in family background.

Is the world experiencing a caesarean section epidemic? The use of this practice is increasing in parallel to the establishment of private actors in the health sector. Using the example of Algeria, economists Ahcène Zehnati, Marwân-al-Qays Bousmah and Mohammad Abu-Zaineh reveal the differences in practice between the private and public health sectors.

Oil, coal, gas, gold, diamonds, and other minerals are a great source of wealth for the countries that have these natural resources beneath the surface of their land. However, resources and development do not always go hand-in-hand. For a long time, economics literature has talked about the “curse of natural resources.” In the 2000’s, this theory is questioned: this “curse” may in fact just be a statistical artifact. The economists Nicolas Clootens and Djamel Kirat provide another perspective to the argument.