Skip to main content

Yann ALGAN

Professor

Economics and Decision Sciences

 Profile picture

Biography

Yann Algan is the Dean of Pre-experience Programs and Professor of Economics at HEC.  His main contributions focus on the role of trust and well-being within organizations and societies, with seminal papers showing the causal impact of trust on economic growth, institutions, populism, and management and organizations. He also focuses on the evaluation of public policy with particular attention to the role of education, management, and employment policies.  His work incorporates methods from economics, management, social sciences, psychology, and big data. His work has been published in various top 5 (American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Political economy), generalist inter-disciplinary reviews (PNAS, Lancet, Organization science…) and, as one of the main specialist of his field, in different handbooks. In 2010 he was awarded an ERC Starting Grant for his project “Trust”. In 2015, he received a second ERC grant, a consolidator one, for the project “Sowell” on Social Preferences, Well-Being, and Policy”. He was the former Dean and founder of the School of Public Affairs at Sciences Po

 

He is a member of the OECD High Level Expert Group on Well-Being, and is affiliated with CEPR and IZA.  His awards include the Best French Young Economist (2009), and his books on trust and French society have been awarded Best French Economics Book and French Essay (2009) and Best French Economics Book, Prix Lycéen (2013). He is one of the main contributor of the international project for a new curriculum in economy (CORE) and senior editor of the review Economic Policy. He is a senior editor of the review Economic Policy, and a member of the Economic Advisory Board for the Prime Minister

Scientific articles

The Economic Situation of First and Second‐Generation Immigrants in France, Germany and the United Kingdom

Economic Journal, February 2010, vol. 120, n° 542, pp F4-F30, (in coll. with C. Dustmann, A. Glitz, A. Manning)

Civic Virtue and Labor Market Institutions

American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2009, vol. 1, n° 1, pp 111-145, (in coll. with P. Cahuc)

Macroeconomic implications of financial policy

Review of Economic Dynamics, October 2009, vol. 12, n° 4, pp 678-696, (in coll. with O. Allais, E. Cárceles-Poveda)

Solving heterogeneous-agent models with parameterized cross-sectional distributions

Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, July 2008, vol. 32, n° 3, pp 875-908, (in coll. with O. Allais, W. J. Den Haan)

Job Protection: The Macho Hypothesis

Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Fall 2006, vol. 22, n° 3, pp 390-410, (in coll. with P. Cahuc)

Self-insurance and inequality

Applied Economics Letters, December 2004, vol. 85, n° 3, pp 295-299, (in coll. with A. Chéron, J.-O. Hairault, F. Langot)

Wealth effect on labor market transitions

Review of Economic Dynamics, January 2003, vol. 6, n° 1, pp 156-178, (in coll. with A. Chéron, J.-O. Hairault, F. Langot)

Public employment and labour market performance

Economic Policy, April 2002, vol. 17, n° 34, pp 7-66, (in coll. with P. Cahuc, A. Zylberberg)

Books

Chapters in edited books

Working papers

Scientific articles

The Impact of Childhood Social Skills and Self-Control Training on Economic and Non-economic Outcomes: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment Using Administrative Data

American Economic Review, August 2022, vol. 112, n° 8, pp 2553-2579, (in coll. with E. BEASLEY, S. M. CÔTÉ, F. VITARO, R. E. TREMBLAY, J. PARK)

Trust in scientists in times of pandemic: Panel evidence from 12 countries

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America_PNAS, 2021, vol. 118, n° 40, pp e2108576118, (in coll. with D. Cohen, E. Davoine, M. Foucault, S. Stantcheva)

Inattention in boys from low-income backgrounds predicts welfare receipt: a 30-year prospective study

Psychological Medicine, September 2020, vol. 50, n° 12, pp 2001-2009, (in coll. with F. Vergunst, R. E. Tremblay, D. Nagin, Y. Zheng, C. Galera, J. Park, E. Beasley, F. Vitaro, S. M. Côté)

Association Between Childhood Behaviors and Adult Employment Earnings in Canada

JAMA Psychiatry, 2019, vol. 76, n° 10, pp 1044-1051, (in coll. with F. Vergunst, R. E. Tremblay, D. Nagin, E. Beasley, J. Park, C. Galera, F. Vitaro, S. M. Côté)

Books

Chapters in edited books

Working papers

Education

  • Post-doctorat, Economics, Université de Californie à San Diego_UCSD - USA
  • Doctorate, Economy, Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne - France

Academic appointments

Academic Responsibilities at HEC

  • 2025- HEC Institutes Director HEC Paris
  • 2021-2025 Associate Dean for pre-experience programs HEC Paris
  • 2021- Professor, Economics and Decision Science HEC Paris
  • 2021- Member of GREGHEC, the joint research laboratory CNRS-HEC Paris, GREGHEC HEC Paris

Scientific Activities

Membership in Academic or Professional Organisation

  • Well-being OECD High Level Expert Group member (HLEG)
  • Member of the Institut Universitaire de France
  • Co-director of the CEPREMAP (Centre pour la Recherche Economique et ses Applications) well-being observatory

Awards & honors

  • 2023 2023 1st HEC Faculty Impact Award