Gustave Kenedi

I am an Assistant Professor of Economics at CY Cergy Paris University (THEMA). I am also a Research Fellow at the Institut des Politiques Publiques and an Associate at CEP (LSE).

Previously, I was a postdoctoral research economist at the London School of Economics within the Centre for Economic Performance. I obtained my PhD in Economics in Nov. 2023 from Sciences Po, under the delightful supervision of Pierre-Philippe Combes.

My research interests are in intergenerational mobility, in particular its measurement and spatial variations, the underlying mechanisms and the policies that can help remediate such intergenerational inequalities. In this spirit, I have undertaken work on educational inequalities.

You can find my CV here.

news

Sep 01, 2025	JOB UPDATE I am very excited to join CY Cergy Paris University as an Assistant Professor of Economics!
Dec 12, 2024	PHD AWARD Humbled and honored that my PhD was awarded an honorable mention for the Philippe Martin Prize of the French Council of Economic Advisors! Congratulations to Anaïs Fabre for her prize!
Nov 20, 2024	JMP draft of my job market paper, Older Schoolmate Spillovers on Higher Education Choices, with Nagui Bechichi. Make sure to read the latest version!
Aug 17, 2024	UPDATED working paper of Beyond the Enrolment Gap: Financial Barriers and High-Achieving, Low-Income Students’ Persistence in Higher Education. This new version has been restructured, redrafted, and includes additional results.
Apr 12, 2024	VOXEU column on our paper on intergenerational income mobility in France.

selected publications

JPubE

Intergenerational Income Mobility in France: A Comparative and Geographic Analysis

(previously "The Anatomy of Intergenerational Income Mobility in France and its Spatial Variations")

Gustave Kenedi, and Louis Sirugue

Journal of Public Economics, 2023

Abs journal PDF Code Brief (FR) Brief (EN) VoxEU

We provide new estimates of intergenerational income mobility in France for children born in the 1970s using rich administrative data. Since parents’ incomes are not observed, we employ a two-sample two-stage least squares estimation. We show, using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, that this method yields reasonably conservative estimates of (rank-based) intergenerational persistence measures relative to what would be obtained if parent income were observed. Our results suggest France is characterized by a strong persistence relative to other developed countries. 9.7% of children born to parents in the bottom 20% reach the top 20% in adulthood, four times less than children from the top 20%. We uncover substantial spatial variations in intergenerational mobility across departments, comparable to those observed across countries. We find that the upward mobility gains from geographic mobility are slightly decreasing in parent income and increasing in the income level of the destination department. The expected income rank of individuals from the bottom of the parent income distribution who moved towards high-income departments is around the same as the expected income rank of individuals from the 75th percentile who stayed in their childhood department.