The work carried out within the Sustainable Development, Environment, and Energy axis addresses the various dimensions of sustainable development. They focus on various topics: economic analysis of environmental and energy transitions; transformations that they imply in the organization and objectives of companies, innovation, territorial development, and the functioning of the labor market. The research undertakes in this group also consider how environmental changes interplay with other major transitions (demographic, digital, food) that deeply affect economies. Members are also interested in the consequences of environmental, energy, and ethical constraints on the behavior of economic agents and the definition of public policies.

Research themes developed by the DDEE axis

Research conducted by members of the axis falls into four main areas:

1. Environment, Natural Resources, and Energy. It is the environmental pillar of SD. The work carried out in this thematic concerns as well (i) pollution problems, climate change, environmental preservation or adaptation policies, environment-agriculture interactions, (ii) as related questions to the management of natural resources, whether they are renewable or not, to the “curse” of these resources, to the energy transition, as well as (iii) to the reciprocal links between economic growth, the environment, and resources.
2. Business, Innovation, Work. The economic pillar of SD aims to reconcile economic development with ecology and the environment. Research on these themes is mainly positioned at the micro and meso-economic level. It aims to analyze the internal transformations of companies, the development of new technologies and processes favourable to ecological transition, and the interactions between the productive sector and the territories. These questions are mainly addressed empirically and mobilize many individual databases of companies, sectors, and local analyzed using econometric techniques and, more recently, artificial intelligence tools. They lead to an analysis of public policies and their evaluation.

1. Population, Inequalities, and Health. The social pillar of SD stresses the equitable dimension that economic development must have. It must, among other things, contribute to the reduction of inequalities and discrimination that can be observed in the labour market (relating to gender or origin) or in the internal functioning of companies. This equity issue also has an intertemporal dimension that today results mainly from the interactions between demographic ageing and policies affecting public transfers between generations. This same demographic ageing, associated with the permanent reduction in growth rates compared to the glorious thirties, has led to policies to adjust social protection, whether in terms of its financing or its scope. These public reforms, which have focused on the two central social protection systems, sickness (and the health sector) and pensions, raise questions about their effectiveness and effects on equity.

4. .Behavioral Economics and Uncertainties. A relatively high level of uncertainty characterizes environmental or health issues. The perception of these uncertainties can be at the origin of suboptimal individual risk prevention behaviours and call into question the effectiveness of public policies. This theme of the DDEE axis focuses on individual risk management behaviours (prevention, insurance) and the design of optimal public policies. At the methodological level, the most recent works give an essential place to the experimental approach.

Several members of the DDEE axis have an essential involvement in the animation and organization of the PREDIR S2CH platform (Experimental Research Platform on Decisions, Interactions and Risks / Federation of Social Sciences Research for Human Behaviors). This platform makes it possible to collect behavioural and biological data useful for the study of individual and collective behaviour. It is accessible to researchers and doctoral students from all member laboratories of the S2CH Federation, sharing the same experimental methodology in the laboratory and from the following disciplines: economics, management, linguistics, social and cognitive psychology, and neurosciences.

Promotion of research

Teacher-researchers and researchers from the DDEE axis lead and participate in several regular scientific events:

• The “Développement Durable Environnement et Énergie” seminar is held once a month, on Tuesday at 4 pm, in the premises of EconomiX and hosts presentations on all the research themes of the axis. This is a seminar open to anyone interested in these issues.
• The “Economie Comportementale” working group, which takes place once a month, on Thursdays at 11:00 am.
• The “Rendez-vous de l’économie territoriale ” co-organized with Sciences-Po Rennes, and the CNRS Arènes laboratory
• The “Rencontres Economiques” Co-organized with l’IGPDE held at the Ministry of the Economy and Finance

The DDEE axis also organizes numerous conferences and study days: Decompartmentalize policies, take the turn in ecological transition – Reflection from the photovoltaic sector and What future for the industry in metropolitan areas? In conjunction with the Chaire Ville, Industrie et Transition Ecologique; The environment and health in maritime cities; Changing the era: global warming and finance; Interdisciplinary workshop on the psychological determinants of eating behaviour; Growth, environment, and population, Etc.

They also participate in the animation of several scientific journals (International Economics; Revue d’Économie Industrielle; Revue Internationale PME; Etc.) and are active in learned societies or associations of economists (French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (FAERE). ), the French Association of Economic Sciences (AFSE), Alliance for Research on Discrimination.

Interactions with the economic and social environment

Several members of the DDEE axis have an activity of scientific advice or expertise in national and international institutions (Chair in Climate Economics, Chair in Demographic Transitions Economic Transitions, CEPII, INED, OECD, ILO, etc.).

The researchers of the axis also have an essential contractual research activity, particularly in the field of companies and local development. These topics have enabled EconomiX to sign partnership agreements with Bpifrance, the National Agency for the Cohesion of the Territories, France Stratégie, the Institute for Research of the Caisse des Dépôts, etc.

They regularly appear in the media, whether written (Le Monde, Les Echos, La Tribune, Alternatives Économique, Liberation, etc.), radio (France Culture, France Inter, RFI, etc.) or television (France 5, France 24, Arte, …).

The links established with companies and various institutions allow the financing (CIFRE and other types of contracts) of numerous theses each year.

Training links

The members of the DDEE axis are mainly involved in three master’s mentions.

The mention of master’s degree in Environment, Energy, and Transport Economics (EEET) aims to offer, through the M1 then five possible M2 courses (environment, energy, modelling-prospective, food, and transport) a training course dealing with all economic questions on energy, climate, ecological, environmental, agro-food and mobility challenges.

More information on: Master EEET 

The mention of a master’s degree in Economic Analysis and Policy (APE) provides training in behavioral economics and trains economist analysts in behavioural data. His M2 course in Applied Behavioural Economics (ECA) combines several complementary skills: mastery of software and computer languages essential for data processing and analyzing and using the data collected from economic models.

More information on: Master ECA

The mention of a master’s degree in Innovation, Business, Society (IES) trains you to master the data collection-processing-valuation chain based on data science in the specific context of economic and financial data. It includes a Data Science for Social Sciences (D3S) course open to recruitment in M1 and a specific course for the Master in Engineering (CMI-D3S) course as a continuation of the CMI-D3S license course as part of engineering training accredited by the network Figure.

More information on: Master IES-D3S