Alfred Galichon, professor at the department of Economics at Sciences Po has been awarded an ERC – European Research Council – Starting Grant for his research project « EcoMatch » – Matching Markets: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations

 This project aims at taking matching models to the empirical data. Matching theory studies how to form optimal coalitions of economic agents based on their complementarities. This theory, which was recently distinguished by the award of the 2012 Nobel prize in Economics to Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley, finds application in a number of fields such as labour economics, family economics, international trade, or consumer theory.

The present project aims at closing the gap between theory and ever more abundant and accessible empirical data. It seeks to understand how the structure of matching markets allows to identify complementarities between economic agents. Applications will be given to various questions such as the impact of fiscal policies on CEO compensation, on marital patterns, consequences of gender imbalance on rural depletion in China, or complementarities between junior and senior employees at the workplace.

A team of French and foreign scholars has been setup around this project : Raicho Bojilov (Ecole Polytechnique), Arnaud Dupuy (Reims Management School), Marc Henry (Université de Montréal), Bernard Salanié (Columbia University).

Alfred Galichon has joined the Department of Economics at Sciences Po in September 2012 as a full professor. He is the scientific director of the « Master in Finance et Stratégie. » A graduate of Ecole Polytechnique Ecole des Mines de Paris (ingénieur en chef des Mines), Alfred Galichon holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University (2007). In 2010, he was nominated for the best French young economist award by the Cercle des Economistes and Le Monde newspaper. Between 2007 and 2012 he was a Professor at Ecole Polytechnique, and he had been a visiting professor at Columbia University and at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. Alfred Galichon is an associate editor of the Review of Economic Studies and Economic Theory. He focuses on econometrics, economic theory and quantitative finance.