This project concerns the determinants of the propensity to adopt and follow the recommendations for prevention and containment in the face of the spread of Covid-19. The fundamental assumption is that this propensity is determined by the personal characteristics of the individual: one the one hand, by his risk and time preferences and his self-control, and on the one hand, by his social preferences (altruism, generosity, trust, cooperativeness). The main objective of the project is to identify the effect of these behavioral dimensions on the observance of containment measures and the adoption of barrier gestures. Their knowledge is a prerequisite for designing more effective non-coercive measures, such as monetary and non-monetary incentives (nudges), to better target communication during and after the crisis, and to increase its impact on behavior. To achieve these objectives, the project will combine several experimental economics' tools that will allow us to precisely measure various behavioral dimensions (risk aversion, impatience, altruism, trust, etc.) based on incentivized tasks. Some of the measures of behavioral dimensions, e.g. risk preferences, will be doubled by declarative and genetic measures. This precaution is intended to obtain converging evidence of the robustness of the main determinants. Finally, we will apply a discrete choice method to highlight the trade-offs that individuals agree to make to accept the restrictive measures and will test a “nudge” to encourage them to do so. Our results will be used to determine the right levers for effective communication with target audiences, with a view, for example, to adopting the observance of barrier gestures. The discrete choice experiment will provide an understanding of the trade-offs to which individuals agree to accept the measures. Finally, the processing variable "nudge" will identify the relevance of this type of measure under extreme conditions. Our work is also of longer-term interest for knowledge, thanks to the genetic block. The objective is to establish a link between the genetic profile and the individuals who transgress the instructions. If there is a pattern of transgression, it will be difficult to devise levers for action for this segment of the population, which would, therefore, represent an uncontrollable risk. Because disobedience is similar to risk-taking, it is likely that some of the SNPs that affect risk tolerance also affect obedience.

To enforce the law or internal codes of conduct, organizations must learn about violations. One way of obtaining such information is by investing in better monitoring technologies or in human resources. Violations of the law or internal rules, however, are often known to non-violators, such as other members of the same organization. Therefore, an alternative, and less costly, way of obtaining information on violations is to rely on whistleblowing from employees. This project aims to study differences in whistleblowing norms across individuals and cultures (individualistic versus collectivistic) and how these interact with incentive policies that organizations may enact (monetary and nonmonetary). Understanding the variation in norms in the context of whistleblowing is of utmost importance because norms that prohibit denunciation can impose high costs on organizations and society at large. The project will use the method developped in experimental economics to study norms and behaviors.

Many sports involve competing with others, as a member of a team or as an individual. Athletic participation in competitive sports can deeply affect athletes’ personalities, in a way that seems to be popular with many employers. This aspect of competitive sports practice has been mainly overlooked by economists. This project proposes to overcome this deficit by addressing three core questions: a) Do athletes who practice competition share common preferences that distinguish them from non-athletes and other athletes? b) Are these preferences at the origin of their selection into competitive sports, or are they the consequence of the practice of competitive sports, and c) Are female athletes competitive enough to close the gender gaps, e.g. in competition and in risk-taking? We address these issues based on an interdisciplinary approach, combining experimental economics, psychology, and human genetics. Our goal is to compare the economic preferences, social preferences, and competitiveness of competitive athletes with those of non-competitive athletes and non-athletes. We will use standard experimental tasks to measure risk and time preferences, social preferences, and competitiveness. The causality issue will be analyzed in three different ways. First, we will rely on the deprivation of competition by comparing recently retired athletes to active athletes. Second, we will rely on incentivized laboratory tasks (tournaments, contests, voluntary contributions, etc.) by providing or not ranking information. We expect that competitive athletes will devote more effort to the tasks when ranking information is known to be available. Finally, we rely on genetic sampling to target several gene variants that are known to affect sports performance. The results of the project are expected to have important implications for higher education policy, for proposing strategies that could close gender gaps, and for identifying routes for promoting fair behaviors.

The LOBBIES project aims to shed light on the strategic behavior of stakeholders affected by the energy transition, their economic motivations, the way they form coalitions and special interest groups, and the channels through which they influence public policies and international negotiations. Methodologically, it combines advanced theoretical modeling and empirical studies in economics based on a very rich original database including, among others, information from the European Transparency Register matched with information on meetings held by EC members and data from social networks, and it plans original surveys and choice experiments. Web-scraping, textual analysis, network analysis and advanced econometrics will be used to further complement and exploit this rich dataset. The project is also informed by political science and science and technology studies to develop a point of view complementary to traditional economic approaches and lean on in-depth case studies. To understand and analyze this strategic design issue, the project features four main work packages. Those are organized around: 1) The dynamics of competition and lobbying in the energy sector; 2) Lobby group formation and functioning in the energy transition; 3) Informational lobbying and influence strategies; and 4) The impact of lobbying on European policies and international commitments. The broad purpose is to deepen our understanding of the policy process and inform the public debate by providing quantitative evidence, which should also target a wide audience, in order to develop the most appropriate response strategies and design energy transition policies that could better accommodate the political ecosystem. The project brings together three partners (Paris School of Economics, MINES ParisTech, the Centre d'économie de l'environnement de Montpellier and the Jean-Jacques Laffont Foundation - TSE) with international researchers, leaders in the field.

SCARCYCLET gathers 21 scientists in economics, geology and engineering of materials, to study the role of mineral resources in the energy transition (ET) and of their recycling This multidisciplinary project shall contribute to the advancement in knowledge on specific dimensions of the dynamic relation between the material-energy and the economic-society elements of the socioecological system, with relevance for the debate on policy design. It spurs new interdisciplinary collaborations, gains momentum of recent innovative frontier work, and improves the training of height young researchers. The project builds on two major synergies. Economists will help the geologists and the engineers to overcome their current difficulty in integrating economic incentives into their models, to improve their ability in replicating historical patterns and running credible scenarios. Engineers and geologists will contribute to the economic analysis of the ET under materials’ scarcity and recycling, by helping economists to meaningfully represent the technology and physical constraints of the recycling activity, of the use of primary and recycled metals, and of the production of primary minerals. We aim at developing original analytical tools for (1) Quantifying material flows and identifying potential bottlenecks under recycling in the ET, and at (2) Designing public policies for recycling metals for the ET. Our activities are structured around four tasks: T1: Improving prospective simulations of materials demand and supply: where we develop modules for the primary supply of metals for the prospective model, and study the potential recovery of metals from fossil-related infrastructure; T2: Understanding the local and geopolitical consequences of metals recycling: where we extend the model to a multiregional scale, and analyze how the emergence of recycling for traded metals can trigger strategic interaction; T3: Defining the socially desirable recycling activity for metals: where we estimate efficient recycling for social objectives on intergenerational equity, for specific cases; T4: Representing equilibrium dynamics and policy interventions under metal recycling: where we model the choices of actors involved in the recycling activity, then analyze the interaction between public policies regarding the energy transition. Recognizing a lack of empirical data, we will collect data from field work on the recycling industry at different stages of the process, for specific equipment and metals. In the light of the topical European policy agenda for critical raw materials and the circular economy, other results are valuable: an improved simulation tool on materials flows and stocks for alternative ET scenarios (available online open access); a clearer understanding of the role of metals’ recycling in trade-related geopolitical frictions; a better coordination between policies such as life-of-product regulation and rules on recycled content. Four partner institutions are involved: CEE-M (environmental economics), IS-Terre (earth studies), IREGE (energy economics), BRGM (mineral resources). Every partner contributes to each task. Interdisciplinary collaborative activities are based on the common methodology of mathematical modelling for dynamic analysis and their empirically-grounded applications. To achieve its goals, the team is organized around some practical collaborations, leading to articles co-authored by scientists of different disciplines. Four research positions will be opened, each jointly supervised by members of two distinct partners. The project opens access to section of datasets on primary metals markets and exploration. Scientific workshops, open to outsiders, are organized every year. Two meetings promote exchange between members and stakeholders’ experts from the industry, NGO’s and administration. Given the policy relevance of the topic, our approach and results will be presented beyond academics.