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This dissertation consists of four self-contained chapters, each based on an independent research paper. The first two address the role of expert judgments on consumer behavior and welfare by focusing on the Goncourt Prize and the Booker Prize. The third and fourth chapters study the role of demonstrations and the determinants of corruption. All four chapters are empirical and rely on observational data. The challenge in applied work when randomized control experiments cannot be used is to draw causal inferences, which is the core message of the “identification revolution” in economics. The common feature of the chapters of this dissertation is that each one addresses causality by using a specific identification strategy taking advantage of a natural experiment. Specifically, Chapter 1 rests on a regression discontinuity design allowed by the decision process of the Goncourt to assess the effect of the prize on sales. Chapter 2 relies on a difference-in-differences strategy to investigate the impact of the Booker on consumer welfare. Chapter 3 estimates the efffect of demonstrations on voting outcomes in the 2002 French presidential election by using weather conditions as an instrumental variable. Finally, Chapter 4 implements a regression discontinuity design to study the effect of electoral rules on political corruption by leveraging the fact that the French law for municipal elections conditions the electoral rules on the population size of a municipality. I provide below a succinct overview of the method and findings of each chapter., Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion, info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

This PhD thesis contains three analyses: one taking an international approach and two focusing on the Belgian labour market. Using macro-level data for 25 developed countries between 1990 and 2015 and several panel data estimations, the results of Chapter 1 suggest that collective bargaining has a poverty-reducing effect through the interaction between trade unions and the welfare state rather than through its role in wage formation. Using matched employer-employee data for Belgium covering the period 1999-2016, the results of Chapter 2 show that first- and second-generation from developing countries earn remarkedly less than workers born in developed countries (i.e. a persistent intergenerational wage gap). However, most of these gaps are explained by compositional effects (e.g. age, tenure, education and occupation), whose extent considerably varies across generations. Using the same data as in Chapter 2, yet focusing exclusively on tertiary-educated workers, the results of Chapter 3 point out that while immigrants overeducation disappears across two generations among full-time workers, this issue remains intergenerational persistent among part-time workers. Therefore, this PhD thesis provides insightful advice for the implementation of policies and strategies that ensure fair and well-functioning labour markets and social protection systems for people at risk of poverty and/or with a foreign background., Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion, info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Labour market integration of migrant workers is key to show the integration of migrants in developed countries. Consequently, the literature regarding this topic has expanded during the last decades to better understand their situation. In this context, the main objective of this Ph.D. thesis is to fulfil gaps in the literature by investigating several aspects of the labour market integration of migrants on the Belgian labour market, namely i) the determinants of the origin-based wage gaps, and ii) the impact of migrants on natives’ employment.Chapter 1, based on a paper co-authored with Benoît Mahy, François Rycx and Mélanie Volral, estimates wage discrimination against non-EU15 workers depending on their region of origin, their tenure and the product market competition faced by the firms they work in. Using a merged employer-employee panel dataset of more than 13,000 firms relative to the Belgian private sector for the 1999–2010 period, results highlight large disparities in wage discrimination against foreign-born migrants depending on their countries of birth (especially against workers born in Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa) and hence confirm the adequacy of dividing non-EU15 workers into subgroups, as they appear to be treated very differently in the Belgian labour market depending on their regions of birth. They also suggest that wage discrimination against migrants vanishes as their firm-specific labour market experience (i.e. tenure) increases and tends to disappear in highly competitive product market situations, these results being in line with statistical and monopsonistic discrimination theories.Next, Chapter 2, based on a paper co-authored with Benoît Mahy and François Rycx, examines the influence of firm’s upstreamness (i.e. the average distance from final use, to be understood as the average number of steps/transactions before firms’ production of goods and/or services meets either domestic or foreign final demand) on wages according to workers’ ori, Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion, info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

In the three chapters of this PhD dissertation, I analyze the increase in the Belgian DI recipiency rate and the role of social security reforms in this phenomenon. The first chapter provides a general overview of the Belgian DI program, analyzes different possible explanations for its rapid growth between 2005 and 2015 and discusses different policy options to address this phenomenon. The second chapter studies the effects of monitoring the job-search activities exerted by the long-term unemployed population on their exit rate to employment, DI and other social safety net programs. The third chapter studies the effect of increasing the eligibility age for an old-age unemployment program, called Unemployment with Company Supplement (UCS), on workers’ employment rate and participation rate in DI or other social security programs., Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion, info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This thesis analyses the socioeconomic repercussions of armed conflicts and natural disasters. Calculating the consequences of global public bads helps uncover the scale, distribution, and structure of their socioeconomic burden. State-of-the art causal inference methodologies are used to ensure the validity of the results. Both short- and long-term effects are explored, by considering various generations and indicators. The first chapter sets out to measure the global cost of all the major armed conflicts that took place in the world between 1970 and 2014. A counterfactual analysis shows that had there been no such conflicts throughout those decades, global GDP would have been 12% higher in 2014. The largest absolute losses associated with violence emanate from Asia, while many highincome economies are found to benefit economically from participating in conflicts on foreign soil. The second chapter compares the effects of the two main types of natural disasters that exist: geological and climatic disasters. Given its wide geographical variety, Mexico is used for this study, and educational attainment amongst 17 and 18-year-olds is used to capture the potential long-term effects of these shocks. Climatic disasters are found to have the worst effect, and the difference between the two is most pronounced in highly urbanized municipalities. Finally, the third chapter analyses the spillovers of public violence on intimate partner violence (IPV). Focusing on Mexico, the study finds that municipalities that saw an upsurge in conflict-related homicides since 2007 also experienced an average rise of 8 to 12% in the share of surveyed women who declared having experienced IPV. This result is mostly found amongst women with fewer options outside marriage, as measured by lower income, educational attainment, and decision-making power within their household. The thesis thus shows how younger generations, women, and economies as a whole can be affected by conflicts and disasters., Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion, info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

iiTSE, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

iiTSE, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

“Old boys’ club” ownership structures can hamper the empowerment of female talent. We use African data to show that the CEOs of firms with female shareholders are more likely to be women, regardless of the size of female shareholdings., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This paper investigates whether flexible pay increases the wage costs of job displacement. We use quasi-exogenous variation in the timing of job loss due to mass layoffs spanning over an institutional reform that restricted single-employer bargaining, the Belgian Wage Norm in 1996. We find that average earnings losses over a ten-year period after displacement are 10 percentage points larger under flexible pay. Workers displaced from jobs with higher employer-specific wage premium—service sector and white-collar—benefit the most from restricted single-employer bargaining as their earnings fully converge to non-displaced workers' earnings within three years. We show that the differences in earnings losses across wage-setting systems are not driven by fluctuations in the business cycle. Our results suggest that reduced pay flexibility may help displaced workers catch up faster to non-displaced workers' pay premium ladder conditional on re-employment., info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished