Programme 3  (DVI) / Development, Cities, Inequality

Matthieu Clément
Guillaume Pouyanne

Programme members
research contracts

The Development, Cities, Inequality (DCI) programme focuses on the analysis of economic and social development issues, urban and territorial dynamics, individual behaviour and inequalities. Much of the research carried out within the programme focuses on the specificities of developing economies.

Poverty reduction has been underway for several decades, but the development challenges remain significant. They affect all aspects of life (health, food, well-being, equity, freedom, security, etc.) as well as human environments and the upheavals of the anthropocene (urbanisation, adaptation to global warming, migration, etc.). The DVI programme proposes a research agenda built around these issues and questions and brings together two of the historical themes of economics in Bordeaux: development economics and spatial and urban economics.

In recent years, Bordeaux researchers in development economics have acquired a high profile in the analysis of behaviour, the economics of agriculture, the study of inequalities and social stratification, the economics of the family,

the analysis of informal activities and the evaluation of redistribution policies, to name but a few. This work covers a wide range of fields: Africa (Senegal, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, etc.), Latin America (Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, etc.) and Asia (China, India, Nepal, Vietnam, etc.).

The three research themes developed in Spatial and Urban Economics are: regional and urban development, from small and medium-sized towns to metropolises, the land and property economy and the economy of mobility, both from the point of view of individual behaviour and sustainable mobility policies. These themes, developed in an applied economics approach, are intended to be extended to urban dynamics in southern countries.

Finally, the programme benefits from the contribution of specialists in normative/ethical economics and psychological and behavioural economics, which will lead to the collective exploration of new fields such as the role of socio-cultural norms and power relations in individual and collective behaviour.

The scientific programme of the DVI programme is structured around three non-exclusive research axes.

This line of research focuses on the behaviour of households and individuals and their well-being. The first aim is to measure inequalities in resources and well-being within and between households in various cultural contexts. It also aims to understand the mechanisms by which households adapt to shocks (climatic, economic, etc.) and the determinants of compensatory strategies such as migration, remittances, child labour, important changes in nutrition and health care use, etc. In addition to analysing the factors that objectively affect household decisions, research has also focused on the role of individual perception (e.g. of environmental risks), the mediating role of emotions (e.g. fear, anxiety, guilt), and the role of behavioural biases and culture. On this last point, the team’s work focuses on the impact of socio-cultural and informal norms (including values, gender norms, ethnic norms, etc.) on the economic choices of households. The team is also continuing its work on the role of regulatory norms or labels (in the agricultural context for example). Finally, a set of research projects aims to study power relations, representation conflicts and actor games at different scales of analysis (micro, meso, macro) and to understand their influence in the formation of public policies.

The work carried out in the “Cities and Territories” area is part of the Spatial and Urban Economy, and covers many contemporary issues related to urban development: sustainable cities, smart cities, territorial resilience, etc. The issues addressed are mainly related to three fields:

Regional and urban development. The study of urban systems, and their stability over time, requires us to question the conditions of urban and regional development. This very broad question can be applied both to large metropolises, when we are interested, for example, in the role of a particular sector in the metropolitan economy, and to small and medium-sized cities, for which the development issues are absolutely crucial. More generally, this work leads us to question the notions of attractiveness and economic dynamism in the light of major contemporary developments, particularly the health crisis.

The land and property economy. Although the issue of housing is at the heart of contemporary public concerns, it has been neglected by French research in economics since the end of the 1970s. This paradox, combined with the clearly expressed need of local authorities to have solid expertise on these subjects, has led researchers in this area to develop work in land and property economics in several directions: firstly, that of the inscription of social inequalities in urban space, through the study of urban segregation; secondly, that of the articulation of the different housing markets, by examining the role of short-term rental in local markets; and thirdly, the integration of the risks linked to climate change in the purchasing decisions of agents

The economics of mobility. Urban mobility is an essential dimension of the sustainable city. Work in this field concerns both the modelling of travel flows in the city, renewed by access to increasingly fine and detailed geolocation data, and the question of interactions between mobility and urban form. Emerging forms of mobility are also addressed, both in developed countries and in the South (India and China in particular).

This axis aims to bring together research on the analysis of inequalities and poverty as well as their consequences in terms of health, violence and social conflicts, migration or environmental quality. This field of research also covers the associated public policy issues, particularly in terms of taxation, redistribution and social protection. In relation to the issue of inequality, more specific work focuses on the analysis of the process of emergence of the middle classes in developing countries and its consequences, in metropolises as well as in medium-sized cities and rural areas, as well as on issues of perception of inequality in relation to objective measures. Finally, this line of research also aims to study ‘informalities’, understood here in a broad sense (informal employment and activities, informal property rights, informal redistribution and social protection, etc.) and their different impacts on living conditions and inequalities.

The work carried out within the framework of the DVI programme is based on diversified methodological approaches (qualitative and quantitative empirical methods, applied theory associated with structural econometrics, (quasi-)experimental approaches, etc.), an openness to interdisciplinarity and a strong grounding in the field through the production of original data in various contexts. The researchers in the programme also share the desire to inform public decision-makers, to enrich the societal debate and to promote institutional partnerships. The DVI researchers have established rich collaborations with various institutions such as the French Development Agency (AFD), the Institute of Research for Development (IRD), the French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP), Orange Lab, the World Bank, the Center for Equity, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), French local authorities and urban planning agencies, etc. They are also regularly involved in innovative research projects (Regional projects, ANR, AFD, etc.). Finally, the DVI programme is a privileged partner of two ‘Major Research Programmes’ (GPR) projects of the University of Bordeaux, namely the HOPE project (Understanding human well-being and behavior for better policies and societies) on issues of behavior and well-being in rich countries and less advanced economies, and the IPORA project (Interdisciplinary policy-oriented research on Africa) encouraging research partnerships on African societies.

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