Welcome!

Samuel LigonniereI am an Associate Professor of Economics (maître de conférences) at the University of Strasbourg. I hold a Ph.D. in Economics from LEM-CNRS University of Lille and from Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay.

My research interests are financial and international macroeconomics, with an emphasis on debt. I explore the circular relationship between income inequality, household credit and financial crises. 

My Curriculum Vitae is here in english and in french.

Publications

1. Structure of Income Inequality and Household Leverage: Cross-Country Causal Evidence, European Economic Review, 2021, 132 (with Rémi Bazillier and Jérôme Héricourt). See also Lettre du CEPII N°379. In the media: Le Monde, The Conversation

2. Trilemma, Dilemma and Global Players, Journal of International Money and Finance, 2018, 85(6), 20-39. Supplementary Material

In french:

1.  Le fonds de sortie des emprunts toxiques: une alternative au contentieux? Revue d’Economie Politique, Forthcoming (with Maxime Fajeau and Alexandre Mayol)

2. La relation circulaire entre inégalités de revenu et finance: tour d’horizon de la littérature et résultats récents, Revue d’Economie Financière, 2018, 128(1), 127-152 (with Rémi Bazillier and Jérôme Héricourt).

Working Papers

  1. Fire Sales and Debt Maturity (Available upon request)

Abstract: How does debt maturity structure affect fire sales? I show how debt maturity can trigger financial crises by introducing debt maturity in a Fisherian deflation model. In particular, using a stock/flow analysis, I find (i) that an excessive reliance on short-term debt exacerbates the risk of financial crises due to fire sales and (ii) that this risk is driven by a rise in the term premium. I confirm these two testable predictions with an empirical study of data from 69 emerging and developing countries from 1970 to 2017. This shows that debt maturity structure is a good early warning indicator of financial crises, which adds information compared with the level of external debt alone.

    2. The unequal distribution of credit: Is there any role for monetary policy? (Available upon request – with Salima Ouerk)

Abstract: Is current monetary policy making the distribution of credit more unequal? Using household level data, we first demonstrate that credit is unequally distributed among households in France. We then investigate a channel for the distribution of credit, such that banks reallocate credit towards the poor and middle classses in the wake of monetary expansion. A decrease in the shadow rate by 100-basis points is associated with an increase in the volume of mortgage by around 5% at the bottom and the middle of the income distribution, while the effect is significantly lower for the top incomes. This result holds for bank relationships, as well as for mortgage and consumer credit, but it would not be sufficient to reduce the unequal distribution of credit. 

Work in Progress

  1. The Anatomy of Financial Cycles (with Clément Mathonnat)
  2. The Consequences of the Dexia Crisis (with Maxime Fajeau and Alexandre Mayol)
  3. Do Credit Distribution and Demography Matter for Regional Inequality? (with Florian Bonnet)
  4. A Social Mobility Dividend (with Laila Ait Bihi Ouali and Mehdi El Herradi)
  5. Phillips Curves in European Countries (with Francesco de Palma, Jamel Saadaoui and Yann Thommen)

  6. Common Agricultural Policy and Climate Shocks (with Rémi Généroso and Clément Nédoncelle)

Contact: ligonniere@unistra.fr