Research
Working papers
Wages, Agglomeration and Air Pollution (draft available upon request)
Commuting, Air Quality and Welfare, with Pol Cosentino [New on SSRN]
AFET - Fabrique de la Cité Young Researcher Award
Next presentation: 7th WCERE (June-July 2026, Nova SBE)
Cleaner Air for Whom? Air Quality Policy and Persistent Exposure Disparities (new version very soon!)
FAERE Prize for Best Paper by a Young Economist
Next presentation: 74th AFSE Congress (June 2026, Nantes)
Abstract
Denser cities are more productive and offer higher wages, through agglomeration externalities. But urban density may also bring about higher local air pollution, which can either be compensated for via higher wages (as a consumption disamenity), or have negative productivity effects, leading to lower wages (as a production disamenity). This paper studies how air pollution affects wages across French cities, and whether it enhances, or instead attenuates, nominal wage differentials (the urban wage premium) and real wage differentials. Using panel data over the 2002-2018 period and a triple instrumental variable strategy to tackle endogeneity concerns, I first confirm that density does foster fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration. Then, I show that as wages react negatively, nominal wage gains from agglomeration are lower on average due to local air pollution. Interestingly, real wages also negatively affected. Relying on the structure of a spatial equilibrium model, I show that this is because local air pollution is an even stronger production disamenity than it is a consumption disamenity: while PM2.5 impairs productivity even at low levels, compensation only kicks in for the largest, most polluted cities. There is also heterogeneity by skill, as the wages of high-skill workers are overall less affected than those of low-skill workers.Presentations
ERUDITE Seminar (UPEC, Jan 2026), PPCR Workshop (ENS Lyon, Dec 2025), EAYE Annual Meeting (King's College London, May 2025), INSEE-CGDD Workshop (Bercy, Feb 2025), GY500 Seminar (LSE, Nov 2024), UEA Meeting (Copenhagen, June 2024), Workshop on Cities and the Environment (PSE, Jan 2024), EEA Meeting (Barcelona, Aug 2023), EAERE Conference (Cyprus, June 2023), AFSE Congress (SciencesPo Paris, June 2023), JMA (Strasbourg, June 2023), Doctorissimes (Paris 1, April 2023), Smart And Sustainable Cities Conference (Lille, Oct 2022, early version focusing on density and PM2.5)Commuting, Air Quality and Welfare, with Pol Cosentino [New on SSRN]
AFET - Fabrique de la Cité Young Researcher Award
Next presentation: 7th WCERE (June-July 2026, Nova SBE)
Abstract
We study the welfare effects of public transport infrastructure investments in the Paris region, highlighting the role of local air quality improvements typically omitted by standard quantitative urban models (QUMs). We first provide reduced-form evidence that tramway expansions improve local air quality. We then develop a QUM with endogenous worker and firm location choice, transport mode choice, and local air pollution affecting amenities and productivity. Applying the model to the Grand Paris Express metro project, we find welfare gains of around 1.5%. We show that omitting the air quality channel leads to a severe underestimation of welfare gains and spatial skill sorting, given the substantial heterogeneity in pollution exposure and in its valuation across skill groups.Presentations
Meeting on Transport Economics and Infrastructure (IEB, Jan 2026), Scientific Committee of Société des Grands Projets (Paris, Dec 2025), CREST Urban and Spatial Economics PhD Workshop (Dec 2025, by co-author), AFET Conference (Lyon 2, Nov 2025, by co-author), EEA Meeting (Bordeaux, Aug 2025)Cleaner Air for Whom? Air Quality Policy and Persistent Exposure Disparities (new version very soon!)
FAERE Prize for Best Paper by a Young Economist
Next presentation: 74th AFSE Congress (June 2026, Nantes)
Abstract
This paper makes use of high-resolution remote-sensing data to provide the first national-scale study of cross-sectional and longitudinal inequality in exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in France, focusing on neighbourhood income and the share of immigrants. There is a U-shaped relationship between income and PM2.5 exposure at the national level, but within urban areas, poorer neighbourhoods are more exposed on average. I also document that holding income constant, neighbourhoods with a high share of immigrants are overexposed. In a second step, I exploit a change in air quality schemes at the level of urban areas in a staggered adoption event-study framework, so as to shed light on potentially unequal benefits from the induced reduction in exposure. Results suggest that the adoption of new air quality schemes accounted for about 30% of the total change in air pollution over the period. Neighbourhoods with a higher share of immigrants did not experience a significantly larger decrease in PM2.5, contributing to a stagnation in disparities in exposure. I quantify which types of measures proved most effective, by targeted sector, and highlight the critical role of additional funding from the national government.Presentations
Discrimination and Diversity Workshop (Exeter, online, June 2025), LOCUS-REGARDS Seminar (Reims, Nov 2022), TEPP Conference (Evry, Oct 2021), FAERE Conference (Grenoble, Sept 2021)Selected work in progress
The Effect of Farm Structure on Economic and Environmental Outcomes, with Sylvain Chabé-Ferret, Anouch Missirian, Emmanuel Paroissien and Joakim A. Weill
Place-Based Interventions and Environmental Inequalities
Place-Based Interventions and Environmental Inequalities