Camille Landais
Professor of Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science
I am Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where I direct the LSE-Gates Hub for Equal Representation in the Economy and the Public Economics Programme at CEPR. I am also affiliated with several research institutions, including the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Paris-based Institut des politiques publiques. I hold a PhD from the Paris School of Economics. My research focuses on public finance, labour economics, inequality, taxation, and gender. My work has appeared in leading journals such as the American Economic Review and the Quarterly Journal of Economics. I co-authored "Pour une révolution fiscale" with Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, and in 2016 I was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize and received the Prize for France’s Best Young Economist.
EXPs by Camille Landais
Inequality is not an immutable fact of nature but a democratic construction shaped by historical shocks and policy choices. While inherited wealth is making a violent return, quantitative research reveals that the economic constraints often used to preclude tax reform—such as mass migration of the wealthy—are frequently overblown.
A surprising finding of our research has been just how important the arrival of kids is to understand gender inequality today. While it seems like a truism that having kids changes household dynamics, we were missing a measurement of how this event affects men relative to women. The impact on women is brutal and persistent, explaining most of the remaining gender inequality in society today.
Gender specialization within the household is not an inevitable result of economic incentives or biological imperatives. By looking at human history and anthropology, we find that our current models of parenting are unique historical developments. Understanding that our beliefs and social norms are malleable allows us to use public policy to imagine and build a more equal world.