Globalization, Labor & Public Policies

Axis 1. Globalization and Territories

Research in this axis examines how globalization dynamics (trade, migration, technological progress) and related policies transform the spatial structure of jobs and wages.

Key questions: What are the effects of global value chains, innovation, and trade policies on firms, employment and wages, couple formation, fertility, and gender norms? How do the fragmentation and automation of production processes reshape firms’ locations and their production and employment strategies (skill demand and wage bargaining)? How do production location, infrastructure, and transport costs shape territorial specializations and spatial inequalities? How do these dynamics translate into inequalities between workers and across territories? What interactions exist between migration dynamics and globalization? What is the impact of structural economic transformations driven by globalization on marriage, fertility, and gender norms?

Axis 2. Labor Market and Inequalities

This axis studies the determinants of access to employment, job polarization mechanisms, discrimination (gender, origin), access to education and degrees and their returns, as well as the formation of wage inequalities. It also analyzes how individuals and households adjust to economic shocks (employment, wages, prices, reforms), integrating the spatial dimension of labor markets, productive structures, and infrastructures.

Key questions: What are the determinants of access to employment and of match quality (e.g., the effect of social networks on information asymmetry)? How does job polarization manifest itself across territories and local productive structures, and what is its impact on intra-household dynamics? How are wage inequalities and discrimination (gender, origin) formed, and how do they vary from one territory to another? How do individuals and households adjust to economic shocks (employment, wages, prices, public policies) in terms of geographical mobility and time allocation within the household, and what is the impact on domestic and economic violence? How do public policies (education, training, employment, family, housing, transport) mitigate or exacerbate these spatial and social inequalities?

Axis 3. Public Policies and Institutions

This axis examines the design, implementation, and evaluation of economic and social policies, as well as market regulation. It analyzes interactions between public, private, and social actors; efficiency–equity trade-offs; budgetary costs; and distributive effects, taking into account institutional and territorial dynamics.

Key questions: How are economic, social, or cultural public policies designed and implemented, and what forms of regulation are used in different fields (education, training, employment, taxation, social protection, housing, competition, culture…), and with what objectives? What are the impacts of these policies and their budgetary costs? What distributive effects (winners/losers) and forms of intergenerational mobility are observed, and how do these dynamics differ across territories and individuals? What role do institutions (governance, social partners, courts) play in the success or failure of these policies? What institutional dynamics are at work, and what interactions exist between public, private, and social actors? How do technological innovations—particularly AI—deeply transform our economies and societies?