Research

Work in progress

• Can agricultural trade promote international climate cooperation? (in progress, JMP).

  Abstract

  International efforts to establish effective and unified climate policies have faced persistent challenges. The agricultural trade sector could play a key role in supporting global climate action, given its unique ties to both food systems and climate change. However, in the absence of targeted climate policies, trade liberalization may lead to unintended environmental consequences. This paper investigates whether reducing agricultural trade tariffs can strengthen climate cooperation and mitigate free-riding behavior. We develop a general equilibrium model that captures essential agricultural characteristics in an open economy and apply it to a club formation game involving climate policy instruments, designed according to agriculture-specificities. Taking it to the data, we simulate a dynamic coalition formation scenario involving different behavioral responses of countries. Preliminary results suggest that agricultural trade liberalization can indeed incentivize countries to join a stable climate coalition, and result in a significant decrease in GHG emissions

• The deforestation effect of climate aid, with Clément Nedoncelle (in progress).

  Abstract

  Climate aid is an international financial flow that promotes mitigation and adaptation to climate change while supporting local economic development. These flows may have unintended consequences, potentially exacerbating environmental degradation. This study examines the impact of climate aid on deforestation in Africa from 2001 to 2021. Using a novel dataset of geocoded aid projects classified as pursuing climate-related objectives by applying a machine learning model, we find preliminary evidence of a causal link between climate aid and forest loss: deforestation increases in areas where climate aid projects are disbursed. Preliminary mechanisms analysis suggests that the effects are driven by local economic activities and new agricultural expansion. However, effects vary by initial forest cover: aid increases deforestation in densely forested areas, while it appears to reduce deforestation where forest cover was initially sparse.

• From farm to COP:climate experts’ views on agriculture in international climate negotiations with Basak Bayramoglu, Christophe Cassen, and Laurent Lamy (in progress).

Published papers

Global Food Security (GloFoodS) project

• Updating the association between socioeconomic status and obesity in low‐income and lower‐middle‐income sub‐Saharan African countries: A literature review, Obesity Reviews, 2023, vol. 24, no 10, p. e13601, with Pierre Levasseur and Clément Mathieu

  Abstract

  Globally, the literature tends to emphasize negative associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and bodyweight in countries improving their economic development. However, little is known about the social distribution of obesity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where economic growth has been highly heterogeneous the last decades. This paper reviews an exhaustive set of recent empirical studies examining its association in low-income and lower-middle-income countries in SSA. Although there is evidence of a positive association between SES and obesity in low-income countries, we found mixed associations in lower-middle-income countries, potentially providing evidence of a social reversal of the obesity burden.

• Is overweight still a problem of rich in sub-Saharan Africa? Insights based on female-oriented demographic and health surveys, World Development Perspectives, 2022, 200, pp.100388, with Pierre Levasseur. Paper

  Abstract

  To most people, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is synonymous with hunger and starvation. However, overweight and obesity are currently also a major public health concern in this region, sometimes even more than the prevalence of underweight. Despite the significant increase in the average body mass index (BMI) in SSA, the existing literature still considers a positive association between household socioeconomic status (SES) and individual BMI, suggesting that excess weight is a symbol of wealth while thinness is linked to poverty. This article aims to update this traditional and probably outdated perception by investigating potential nonlinearities and heterogeneity in the relationship between SES and BMI in SSA. First, we pool several cross-sectional female adult-oriented demographic and health surveys that are representative of a large number of SSA countries from 1990 to 2019. Second, we implement both ordinary least-squares (OLS) and instrumental variables (IV) regressions. Once a comprehensive set of observed characteristics was controlled for, OLS estimates suggest a nonlinear association between SES indicators and female BMI, taking a U-inverted shape. IV corrections controlling for reverse causality and unobserved heterogeneity reveal similar trends, confirming the overrepresentation of excess weight in intermediate levels of wealth and education. Furthermore, this study dates the social shift of the obesity burden in SSA: changing from positive to curvilinear from the end of the 1990s, including for countries currently classified as lower middle income. To conclude, this article contributes to the literature demonstrating the ongoing nutrition transition in SSA and the role of an emergent middle class in the rise of the obesity epidemic. This result has important implications for public health policies.