Romaine Loubes

PhD candidate in Economics

Paris School of Economics

Welcome to my website!

I am a PhD candidate at PSE working under the supervision of Prs. David Margolis and Ariell Reshef. I am interested in development, trade and labor economics, especially how firm and workers adapt to trade policy in developing countries. Another part of my recent work addresses the organizational consequences of trade liberalization.
In Fall 2024, I will be visiting UC Berkeley under the supervision of Pr. Mathilde Muñoz. Do not hesitate to write 🖊️
🌍 Since March 2024 I am also the Coordinator for East and Southern Africa at the World Inequality Lab
In Winter and Spring 2024, I was visiting the LSE under the supervision of Pr. Rocco Macchiavello.
Scheduled talks : CSAE Conference, Oxford (23-25 March 2025)

Working Papers

Trade-Displaced or Trade-Stuck? Self-Employment, Gendered Outside options and Trade Shocks Adaptation

The self-employed do not adapt to trade shocks like the salaried, making the most documented responses - unemployment, informality - not automatic in regions with prevalent self-employment. I provide evidence of this, put forward self-employment-specific adaptation strategies, formalize them through a time allocation framework and test the model’s predictions that workers with lower quality of outside options adapt less. I uncover sizeable heterogeneity in women’s time allocation responses relative to men, suggesting gendered effects of gender-neutral trade policy.

Bias in parental investments and human capital gaps in India

Does gender inequality in parental investment come from them mis-measuring skills from the same objective measures across genders, or from biased conversion of these skills into investment? I adapt a dynamic model of skill formation and parental investment and show gender bias in parental appreciation of the same factor, with consequences on effective capital formation at later develomment stages.

Work in Progress

Free-Trade Agreement Exclusion and firm-level downgrading in developing countries

Import Competition and Outsourcing to Individual Workers (with A. Levelu)

Unpaid Spousal Labor as Insurance Against Shocks: Evidence from Family Firms

Teaching

Econometrics (1st year Master’s)

In-person TA: Fall 2022, Fall 2023

Econometrics (3rd year Bachelor’s)

In person TA: Spring 2023