Chloé Antoine

Welcome! I am a 2nd-year PhD student in economics at CREST — École Polytechnique, advised by Jean-Marc Bourgeon and Gregory Corcos.

My research interests lie in the fields of environmental economics and international trade, particularly when they apply to agriculture and biodiversity. Currently, my work aims at studying the consequences of agricultural specialisation, with both theoretical and empirical perspectives. I notably enjoy working with geospatial data.

I graduated from Institut Polytechnique de Paris in 2023, where I followed a master's degree in economics. Before that, I studied economics and history at Université Paris Sciences & Lettres as part of a multidisciplinary undergraduate program.

You can find more details in my CV.

• Email: chloe.antoine@ensae.fr
• Address: Office 4100, ENSAE Paris, France

• Agricultural productivity and biodiversity effects: theory and evidence
  with Jean-Marc Bourgeon & José De Sousa
  Agricultural specialization maximizes land use efficiency but it also amplifies pest pressure, thereby requiring heavy pesticide use. This paper evaluates the economic benefits of using an ecological approach that recommends reducing specialization to leverage natural pest control. We develop a model in which the resilience of a farmer's plot is endogenous to the crop and pesticide choices of her neighbors, which is not internalized. We derive the status quo as well as the socially optimal equilibirum distribution of land between crops. Using disaggregated data and novel instrumental variables, we then estimate the impact of diversification on global crop productivity. Results show that crop biodiversity significantly boosts yields of major crops like maize, rice, and wheat.

• New evidence on the agricultural extensive margins
  Agricultural diversification has the potential to increase resilience to stresses and shocks, as well as reducing pressure on the environment. In this paper, I propose a novel index that allows consistent cross-national comparisons of domestic and international agricultural extensive margins. I construct a dataset covering more than 160 countries and establish stylized facts over the period 1992-2017. By estimating a gravity equation that includes domestic trade, I then identify new extensive margin effects, including those of globalization, producer support policies and international environmental agreements.
• Ricardo goes green: a quantitative spatial analysis of the welfare effects of pesticide regulation
  with Jean-Marc Bourgeon & José De Sousa
  The increased specialisation of farming systems has been made possible by the growing use of agrochemicals. While the latter help farmers to reduce the biotic risks associated with the concentration of a single crop species, they are associated with negative externalities for the environment and human health. To limit these derimental effects, several countries have already banned the most dangerous substances and intend to limit the use of remaining chemicals through successive regulations. Without these damage control agents however, farmers are likely to suffer extreme losses causing both the mean and variance of food prices to rise. This project studies these welfare effects, as well as the mitigation potential of reallocating cropland towards greater crop diversity. To do so, we develop a quantitative general equilibrium model of trade that incorporates ecological knowledge on biotic effects.

• 2024
  CREST Internal Seminar, USSEE 13th Biennial Conference [online], PSAE Internal Seminar, CREST 1st-year PhD Workshop, INRAE SMART seminar [scheduled]

• Introduction to economics — École Polytechnique
  — Cycle ingénieur, Prof. O. Gossner & J.-B. Michau [Spring 2024]
  — B.Sc., Prof. Y. Koriyama & J.-B. Michau [Fall 2023, 2024]
• International trade — ENSAE
  — M.Sc., Prof. G. Corcos [Fall 2023, 2024]

• Non-academic interests — In my free time I enjoy watching movies, hiking, reading comic books, cooking vegetarian food and playing the bass.

• Website — I am grateful to Paul Patault for helping me build this website, which design is inspired by that of Gautam Rao. Your visit here produced only 0.09 g of CO2. Check your own website's carbon footprint and learn how to reduce it.

• Friends — Explore my office mates' research

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