Basile Dubois

PhD Candidate | Toulouse School of Economics

About me 🙋🏻‍♂️ | Basile Dubois

About me 🙋🏻‍♂️

I am a 30 years old financial economist. I am currently pursuing a PhD at Toulouse School of Economics 🎓.
I was invited as a visiting officer of research at Columbia University Business School during the fall semester of 2022.
Before that, I obtained a dual-degree undergrad in Economics and Mathematics at Université Panthéon-Assas and Sorbonne Université, and a joint Economics and Applied Mathematics masters from Sciences Po and the Erasmus Mundus quantitative economics program 📚.

Research approach 🔍

I like to take an empirical look at policy questions by combining insights from economic theory and the opinion of practitioners. Bridging the gap between practitioners’ beliefs and economic theory predictions often leads to interesting, policy-relevant research.

Throughout my PhD in Toulouse, I have developed an expertise building and working with large datasets, as well as taking the empirical industrial organization methodology to financial economics. Many questions in Finance revolve around supply and demand, and empirical IO tools are uniquely suited to address that.

Hobbies and lifestyle 🏃‍♂️

My 7 years stint in Toulouse left me with a fondness for the mountains, and a burning passion for rugby 🏉. On top 14 match days, you can definitely find me cheering on the Stade Toulousain! I also like to spend my energy burning calories. Living with spondyloarthritis since I was 11–a degenerative inflammatory disease affecting the spine and joints–has taught me resilience and the importance of maintaining a balanced lifestyle: I enjoy running, cycling, and spending a few weeks each year hiking in the mountains. 🏔️

I am an avid reader with a strong appetite for non-fiction and pop academic literature, particularly in the fields of economics, history, geopolitics, and diplomacy. Please do ask me about my current reads—I’m always happy to discuss and exchange recommendations! 🤓

Global outlook 🌍

My upbringing in multicultural Paris, as well as my experiences living in Barcelona 🇪🇸, Utrecht 🇳🇱, NYC 🗽, and working for the OECD during the course of my studies gave me a strong belief in the power of diversity, as well as the importance european and international cooperation 🫱🏿‍🫲🏻. I value working with and learning from people of diverse cultures. From my standpoint, interacting with different cultural perspectives helps avoid narrow-mindedness and fosters inclusivity.

The climate emergency is an issue I take seriously 🌿🔥. Therefore, I have been working as a consultant for the OECD on research into financing the climate transition. You can check it out here. Ensuring that the climate transition is properly financed while minimising the adverse effects of policy intervention is surprisingly difficult. As researchers, we have a unique opportunity to meaningfully contribute to the ongoing debates 🗳️. Economics, despite being quantitatively grounded, is a social science and remains tightly connected to politics.