A Theory of Endogenous Degrowth and Environmental Sustainability (with Philippe Aghion, Timo Boppart, Michael Peters, and Fabrizio Zilibotti). Revision requested, Econometrica
Growth can be consistent with environmental sustainability if it is directed to improving quality rather than increasing quantity. The recent rise of services reflects a transition to quality-oriented growth that may be mismeasured as a growth slowdown.
The expanding market share of modern service firms creates service-led growth in developing countries. Modern services are more productive than traditional services, and more in-demand among high-income consumers. These facts mean that growth through service modernization is partially self-sustaining.
Risk-sharing causes migrants to move to less productive destinations that provide a better hedge against shocks in their origin location. This effect is testable and observable in gravity equations on migration flows.
Firms Unchained: Human Capital, the Emergence of Modern Services, and 21st Century Development (with Alvaro Cox and Hannes Tepper)
An exogenous expansion of human capital unlocks service-led growth by allowing top service firms to open establishments in new locations.
Industrial Development, VoxDevLit, 22(1), February 2026. With Francesco Amodio, Markus Poschke, Bruno Caprettini, Jaedo Choi, Hanwei Huang, Yu-Hsiang Lei, Tristan Reed, Rodimiro Rodrigo, Luis Felipe Sáenz, Marco Sanfilippo, Gustavo de Souza, Michael Sposi, and Verena Wiedemann.