Publications of the Chair

From Demand Deficit to Development Strategy: Navigating Mini-grid Viability in a Fragile Context

2026
Authors :
Elie Lunanga, Nik Stoop, Marijke Verpoorten, Sébastien Desbureaux

Four in five people without access to electricity live in Sub-Saharan Africa, where mini-grids are seen as a key solution. Yet investment remains constrained by low and unpredictable demand, especially in fragile settings. We study electricity demand in North Kivu (Democratic Republic of Congo), using pre-grid census and survey data combined with six years...

Subsidising Electric Cooking to Protect the Environment: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in the D.R. Congo

2025
Authors :
Sébastien Desbureaux, Lara Collart, Nik Stoop, Raphael Soubeyran, Marijke Verpoorten, Mathieu Couttenier, Christine Cikesa, Jean de la Croix Kembere Mulwahili,Natsuno Shinagawa

This randomized controlled trial investigates how to accelerate the transition to the cleanest cooking fuel, electricity, and quantifies the benefits for people and the environment. 

Historical Carbon Debts and Credits – 1750-2023

2025
Authors :
Tobias Angel, Alain Naef

Historical contributions of carbon emissions differ widely between nations, constraining climate change negotiations. Cumulative country estimates ignore historical populations, overstating the role of large-population countries. In this paper, we present a global accounting framework. Adding CO2 emissions from land use change radically reshapes the map, moving Brazil from the world’s 8th largest creditor to...

Monnaie et Finance Ecologique / Ecological Economics and Finance -An Introduction to Sustainable Monetary and Financial Systems

2025
Authors :
Thomas Lagoarde-Segot, Laurence Scialom, et 13 autres auteurs

Quinze spécialistes, issus des grandes écoles et universités françaises, ont contribué à la rédaction du manuel, dans le cadre d’un groupe de travail bénévole du Sustainable Development Solutions Network des Nations Unies.This textbook, written by fifteen economists from the SDSN France network, provides an accessible introduction to ecological economics and finance.

Thesis: Three essays on the economics of the green transition

2025
Authors :
Chloé Saurel

The energy transition is a worldwide endeavor that most countries have come to acknowledge, thanks to the work of scientists all over the world. The use of fossil fuels in our energy-intensive economies for the past centuries has dramatically increased global warming (+1.5 degrees Celsius since preindustrial times), and public policies play a key...

Energy Poverty has a justice dimension: comparing Bolivia, Côte d’Ivoire, and France

2024
Authors :
Anna Creti, Alpha Ly et Maria-Eugenia Sanin.

Energy poverty is a multidimensional issue, as demonstrated by a comparison between two low-income countries, Bolivia (BOL) and Côte d’Ivoire (CIV), and a high-income European country, France (FRA). These three countries represent different stages of access and energy poverty. The findings highlight the importance of considering affordability in efforts to ensure universal energy access, to...

Thèse : La finance solidaire en france : quelle évaluation extra-financière de la création d’utilité sociale chez les institutions financières ?

Authors :

Cette thèse analyse l'évolution de la finance solidaire en France à travers l'essor des fonds d'investissement solidaires. Elle met en lumière les tensions entre logique financière et l'objectif solidaire initial, en s'appuyant sur trois cas. 

The Environmental Consequences of Economic Inequalities: A Systematic Empirical Literature Review

2025
Authors :
Luc Elie, Tobias Angel, Alexandre Berthe

Greater economic inequalities increase environmental degradation in most cases. Building on evidence from 136 studies and 406 empirical tests between 1998 and 2022, we construct a database enabling an in-depth analysis of the literature. Our main findings are threefold. 

Thèse : Au-delà de Pigou : politiques et leviers comportementaux pour réguler les externalités environnementales liées à la viande

2025
Authors :
Maxence Gérard

Cette thèse s'intéresse à la régulation des externalités environnementales liées à la production et la consommation de viande. Elle vise à la fois à proposer des instruments de second rang lorsque les politiques pigouviennes ne peuvent pas être mises en place par le régulateur, et à comprendre comment mobiliser les normes morales et sociales pour...

Thesis: Competing green technologies : The case of low-carbon hydrogen

2025
Authors :
Albin Kasser

This dissertation investigates the economic competition among green technologies in the context of the energy transition, with a particular focus on low-carbon hydrogen. Beyond the classic "grey-to-green" paradigm that models cleaner technologies replacing fossil-fuel-based alternatives, this work emphasizes the increasingly relevant competition within green technologies.