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.

🌍 Since March 2024 I am also the Coordinator for East and Southern Africa at the World Inequality Lab

In Winter and Spring 2024, I will be visiting the LSE under the supervision of Pr. Rocco Macchiavello. Do not hesitate to write 🖊️

Scheduled talks : Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy Academic Conference, University of Nottingham (18-19 April 2024), SOLE annual meeting, Portland, Oregon (US) (3-4 May 2024), European Association of Young Economists Meeting, Paris School of Economics (23 - 25 May 2024), Journées de Microéconomie Appliquée (JMA), Université Catholique de Lille (6-7 June 2024), International Conference on Development Economics (JMA), (ICDE), AMSE (2-3 July 2024),

Working Papers

Trade-Displaced or Trade-Stuck? Self-Employed Workers and Adaptation to Trade Shocks in Low-Income Countries

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)

Teaching

Econometrics (1st year Master’s)

In-person TA: Fall 2022, Fall 2023

Econometrics (3rd year Bachelor’s)

In person TA: Spring 2023