PSAE (Paris-Saclay Applied Economics)
March 17 2022Joint Research Unit - AgroParisTech, INRAE and Université Paris-Saclay
General scientific orientation
On January 1, 2022, the Paris-Saclay Applied Economics (PSAE) Joint Research Unit was born from the merger of the ALISS and Public Economy units. In alignment with Agricultural and Resource Economics Departments in US universities, PSAE aims to address broad themes related to agriculture, food, and the environment. It is at the centre of applied economics research at the Université Paris-Saclay and is helping various disciplines strengthen their work using quantitative methods.
PSAE has brought together around fifty permanent staff from AgroParisTech and INRAE and will train an average of forty students and interns each year. The unit has played a major role in designing educational curricula at AgroParisTech (engineering programme), the Institut Polytechnique de Paris (Master’s Degree in Economics, Degree Programme in Polytechnical Engineering [Cycle Ingénieur polytechnicien]), and the Université Paris-Saclay (Master’s Degree in the Economics of the Environment, Energy, and Transport [EEET], Master’s Degree in Economics [MoE]).
Recent work by PSAE researchers has focused on (i) the role of land use in reducing greenhouse gas emissions ; (ii) the interactions between international trade and adaptive responses to climate change ; (iii) the development of foods based on plant proteins ; (iv) the impacts of the Nutriscore and Ecoscore on consumer food choices ; and (v) power dynamics within the agrifood industry. In all their work, PSAE researchers examine how stakeholders, such as producers, consumers, and taxpayers, are affected by different regulatory options (e.g., taxes, subsidies, mandatory labelling, technical standards) when it comes to economic, nutritional, health, and environmental returns.
Fields of research
PSAE has three core research themes and two multidisciplinary research axes.
Core research themes
- Analyse the possible conditions under which dietary regimes could shift, as products become increasingly differentiated
- Understand the factors underlying the dietary behaviours of consumers and the consequences for demand, social inequalities, health, and the environment
- Analyse the consequences of shifts (e.g., input prices, regulations) within international agricultural markets and all along the production chain, from agricultural commodities to distribution
- Use original approaches to mobilise the economics of development and demand to better understand industry structure and international trade
- Model relationships between the environment and the supply of agricultural products using theoretical knowledge in environmental economics and public economics that is applied at different scales (e.g., landscape, France, EU) and that accounts for spatial and interindividual heterogeneity in production conditions
- Analyse adaptive responses to climate change and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions
Multidisciplinary research axes
- Study regulations applied at different food system levels : farmers, agrifood businesses, distributors, and consumers
- Carry out prospective (ex ante) and retrospective (ex post) evaluations ; provide solutions based on empirical research
- Evaluate the economic effectiveness of public policies using theoretical analyses and quantitative methods, such as econometrics, experimental economics, and/or market equilibrium modellin
- Quantify economic impacts by building databases using the ODALIM platform