European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics

Prof. Olivier Bargain (Bordeaux University)

“Terror and Conservative Shifts: Cross-Design Evidence”
Co-authored with Alpaslan Akay (University of Gothenburg) and Niclas Knecht (Bordeaux University).

Registration deadline: September 10, 2026.

Public PhD defense – Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management

Morgane RIGAUX

Thesis: “Essays in Household Economics: Resource Allocation, Family Structure, and Women’s Economic Rights”

Hybrid defense: in person and via Microsoft Teams.
Teams: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/34390780619018?p=N8oe9gXu3c3QR0lwte

Jury:
• Georg Kirchsteiger – President of the jury, ECARES, ULB
• Thomas Demuynck – Co-supervisor, ECARES, ULB
• Paula Gobbi – Co-supervisor, ECARES, ULB
• Bram De Rock – ECARES, ULB
• Fabio Blasutto – ECARES, ULB
• Axel Dreher – Heidelberg University
• Marc Goñi – University of Bergen

Elise Viadere will publicly defend her PhD thesis entitled “Essays on Retail Electricity Market Design” on Friday, 25 September 2026 at 4:00 PM.

  💻 Hybrid format – one jury member will participate online  

Jury:
Estelle Cantillon (ULB, Supervisor)
Mattia Nardotto (ULB, Secretary)
Marten Ovaere (UGent)
Mar Reguant (IAE-CSIC & Barcelona School of Economics)
Philip Ushchev (ULB)
Guntram Wolff (ULB, Chair)

Title :  Do Elections Moderate orPolarize Political Rhetoric?

Tito Boeri, Nina Nikiforova, Guido Tabellini

Abstract : The paper develops atheory of electoral competition with targeted political communication and testsit empirically. The authors analyze Twitter/X posts from 367 political leadersin 21 countries between 2013 and 2022, comparing populist and non-populistpoliticians. Using a structural model of speech (building on the Gentzkow,Shapiro and Taddy approach), they find that political rhetoric grows morepolarized as elections approach, driven by two mechanisms: politiciansemphasize issues tied to their political "type," and within eachissue they adopt more extreme language.

Public PhD defense of Giovanni Paolo Mariani

Title: “New Perspectives on Inequality and Redistribution”

Monday, 28 September 2026 at 16:00
Format: Hybrid – in person in room R42.2.113 and online via Microsoft Teams
Teams: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/377701842342250?p=z2oH81QH31z1pbwwLi

Jury:
Bram De Rock – President of the jury, ECARES, ULB
Micael Castanheira – Co-supervisor, ECARES, ULB
Paula Gobbi – Co-supervisor, ECARES, ULB
Mattia Nardotto – Secretary, ECARES, ULB
Tito Boeri – Bocconi University, Milano
Clémence Tricaud – University of California (UCLA), Los Angeles

Expected duration: about 2 hours.
Drink in the lounge afterwards, organized by Giovanni Paolo.

Speaker: Malka Guillot (Université de Liège)

Title: What drives Corporate Philanthropy? Novel Evidence from Tax Data

Abstract:How responsive is corporate philanthropy to tax incentives? We combine exhaustive French corporate tax records for 2003–2022 with itemized donor–recipientdata for firms donating more than e10,000 annually in 2019–2022. Two reformsraised eligible-donation caps for firms below sharp sales thresholds. Difference-indifferences estimates show that the reforms increased corporate donations. Diff-inbunching estimates imply tax-price elasticities of −0.391 and −0.461. Responses aresubstantially larger among small and medium-sized enterprises. Matched donorrecipient data provide suggestive evidence of greater responsiveness when giving isconcentrated on one recipient and for foundations rather than associations.  

Seminar: 14:00–15:15 (75 minutes, including Q&A).

Title : Not-so-Cleansing Recessions.


Abstract : Recessions are periods in which the least productive firms in theeconomy exit, and as the economy recovers, they are replaced by more productiveentrants. These cleansing effects improve the average firm productivity. At thesame time, recessions induce a loss of varieties. In an economy with HomotheticSingle Aggregator technology, we show that their long-run welfare effects tradeoff these two forces. This trade-off is governed by love-of-variety and theelasticity of substitution in aggregate production. If industry output isaggregated using the standard CES aggregator, recessions do not improvelong-run GDP or welfare. If the economy features more love-of-variety than CES,the social planner optimally subsidizes economic activity both in steady stateand even more so in recessions to avoid firm exit. We use the model andquasi-exogenous variation in demand to estimate love-of-variety. We find it tobe significantly higher than implied by CES aggregation, suggesting that eventhe long-run effects of recessions are negative. Finally, we quantitativelycharacterize the optimal policy response both along the transition and in thesteady state.