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At the crossroads of science and society, the Public Outreach unit of the Aix-Marseille School of Economics is committed to sharing economic science with non-specialist audiences, with the aim of shedding light on societal issues and contributing to collective thinking.

The Balance Between Labor and Capital: Do Profits Consume Wages?

How are wages decided upon? One major determining factor is how value added is shared between a company’s profits and employee compensation. It has been collectively admitted that over the past forty years, profits have increased in many developed countries at the expense of wages. Economists Gilbert Cette, Lorraine Koehl, and Thomas Philippon look at this in a new light and demonstrate that the percentage for wages has actually increased in France.
MAY 10, 2022
MAY 10, 2022

Students Prefer Accredited Schools!

How can you set yourself apart within a world of excellence? In order to be noticed and attract the very best students, elite French business schools, much like peacocks, show off their finest attire. However, when it comes to the strategy institutions use to win over students, a new element is quickly gaining traction: accreditations! The economists Mathieu Lefebvre and Julien Jacqmin explore this new tactic.
APRIL 26, 2022
APRIL 26, 2022

Risky Workplace: Reserved for Immigrants

Not all is equal between natives and immigrants in the labor market. Beyond wage differences, immigrants also tend to work in more dangerous jobs and face difficult working conditions. According to the economist Eva Moreno Galbis, this difference can be partially explained by outside employment opportunities and preferences driven by socio-demographic characteristics.
APRIL 14, 2022
APRIL 14, 2022

In Favour of the Majority

What could be more natural than reaching agreement by following the preference of the majority? Mihir Bhattacharya and Nicolas Gravel study the issue through a mathematical lens. They show that, in addition to its philosophical legitimacy, the majority is a collective preference representative of the preferences of the members of a society. Like the average, the median, or other statistical measures, the preference of the majority bears the closest resemblance to the individual preferences from which it emanates.
MARCH 29, 2022
MARCH 29, 2022

May God Bless You! (If you pay)

For both insurance and divine protection, giving to the church can pay off. This is what economists Emmanuelle Auriol, Julie Lassébie, Amma Panin, Eva Raiber, and Paul Seabright demonstrate after studying the reasons why Ghanaian parishioners often give such large donations (sometimes over 10% of their income!) to their churches.
MARCH 1, 2022
MARCH 1, 2022

The general practitioner shortage: a French disease?

France is suffering from a shortage of general practitioners. One of the symptoms of this sickness has been termed 'medical desertification'. But what lies behind this expression? The economists Julien Silhol, Bruno Ventelou and Anna Zaytseva overthrow the assumptions in their latest publication. They reveal a little-known truth: inequalities exist in access to care from one end of France to the other, and not only in rural areas. An in-depth study is conducted into the practices of general practitioners in these areas defined by the ARS as 'under-provisioned': do these medical practices differ according to location?
FEBRUARY 1, 2022
FEBRUARY 1, 2022

The environmental burden of the international job market for economists

Only in English | In a column in Vox EU, Alberto Prati (University of Oxford), Olivier Chanel (CNRS/AMSE) and Morgan Raux (University of Luxembourg) argue that it is time to reassess the environmentally unsustainable recruitment system of the international job market for economist.
JANUARY 17, 2022
JANUARY 17, 2022

Le Grand Retour de la terre dans les patrimoines et pourquoi c'est une bonne nouvelle !

Only in French | In this book, Alain Trannoy (EHESS / AMSE) and Étienne Wasmer (Sciences Po Paris / NYUAD) explain why urban land has become considerably more valuable over the last thirty years, and propose a fiscal revolution to concile social justice and economic efficiency. Available from Odile Jacob on 19 January 2022.
MAY 10, 2023
MAY 10, 2023

Students prefer 'accredited' schools

In a study published in the Economics of Education Review, Julien Jacqmin (NEOMA Business School) and Mathieu Lefebvre (AMU/FEG/AMSE) looked at the influence of accreditations of business schools on the choice of future french students.
JANUARY 10, 2022
JANUARY 10, 2022

Differing beliefs about common societal issues: what are the outcomes?

Reducing overall plastic consumption, vaccinating enough people to curb a pandemic, or donating to charity – these are all divisive issues. If I want to contribute, will my actions make any difference? What cost am I willing to pay? Economists Nicolas Gravel and Anwesha Banerjee study the extent to which an individual’s beliefs on issues such as these can influence the actions taken. Their research shows that the more closely a group's members are aligned on an issue, the more likely the group is to act toward the public good.
JANUARY 4, 2022
JANUARY 4, 2022