Pierre-Philippe Combes

Pierre-Philippe COMBES initially joined the Department in 2013 as an Associated Professor. As of 2021 he is a member of our permanent faculty as a CNRS Professor. In 2024, he became an Exceptional-Class Research Director. He is also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). 

His research interests are in urban economics and economic geography, with a special interest in the working of local labour and housing markets and the location choices of firms and households, resulting in possible economic spatial disparities.

His work is regularly published in the top, international, peer-reviewed journals in economics, such as Econometrica, the Review of Economic Studies, the Journal of Political Economy, or the Journal of the European Economic Association, as well as in specialised reviews such as the Journal of Urban Economics, the Journal of International Economics, the Journal of Labor Economics, and the Journal of Development Economics.

Pierre-Philippe COMBES joins us from the University-ENS of Lyon (2016-2021). Prior to that, he was at the Aix-Marseille University (2003-2016), Boston University (2001-2003) and CERAS-École des Ponts et Chaussées (1998-2001).

He is a graduate of the École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique (ENSAE) where he was an Associated Professor from 1998 to 2014. He holds a PhD in Economics from CREST (EHESS-APE programme), now Paris School of Economics (PSE).

To learn more about Pierre-Philippe COMBES, consult his website

See all publications

• Ziyang Chen, Pierre-Philippe Combes, Sylvie Démurger, Xiuyan Liu. Housing Costs and Real Income Differences across Chinese Cities. 2025. ⟨hal-04942192⟩
• Clémence Berson, Pierre-Philippe Combes, Laurent Gobillon, Aurélie Sotura. Time-Varying Agglomeration Economies and Aggregate Wage Growth. 2023. ⟨hal-04346733⟩
• Ziyang Chen, Pierre-Philippe Combes, Sylvie Démurger, Xiuyan Liu. Housing Costs and Real Income Differences across Chinese Cities. 2025. ⟨hal-04358027v3⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Clément Gorin, Shohei Nakamura, Mark Roberts, Benjamin Stewart. An Anatomy of Urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa. 2023. ⟨hal-04345529⟩
• Shohei Nakamura, Pierre-Philippe Combes, Robin Moellerherm, Charlotte Robert, Mark Roberts, et al.. Where Is Poverty Concentrated? New Evidence Based on Internationally Consistent Urban and Poverty Measurements. 2023. ⟨hal-04345458⟩
• Clément Bosquet, Pierre-Philippe Combes, Emeric Henry, Thierry Mayer. Peer Effects in Academic Research: Senders and Receivers. The Economic Journal, 2022, 132 (648), pp.2644-2673. ⟨10.1093/ej/ueac031⟩. ⟨hal-03874070⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Laurent Gobillon, Yanos Zylberberg. Urban Economics in a Historical Perspective: Recovering Data with Machine Learning. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2022, 94, ⟨10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2021.103711⟩. ⟨halshs-03673240⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Gilles Duranton, Laurent Gobillon. The Production Function for Housing: Evidence from France. Journal of Political Economy, 2021, 129 (10), pp.2766-2816. ⟨10.1086/715076⟩. ⟨halshs-03342578⟩
• Marie-Pierre de Bellefon, Pierre-Philippe Combes, Gilles Duranton, Laurent Gobillon, Clément Gorin. Delineating urban areas using building density. Journal of Urban Economics, 2021, 125, ⟨10.1016/j.jue.2019.103226⟩. ⟨halshs-02492519⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Laurent Gobillon, Yanos Zylberberg. Urban economics in a historical perspective: Recovering data with machine learning. 2021. ⟨halshs-03231786⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Sylvie Démurger, Shi Li, Jianguo Wang. Unequal migration and urbanisation gains in China. Journal of Development Economics, 2020, 142, pp.art 102328. ⟨10.1016/j.jdeveco.2019.01.009⟩. ⟨halshs-02005778⟩
• Clément Bosquet, Pierre-Philippe Combes, Emeric Henry, Thierry Mayer. Peer Effects in Academic Research: Senders and Receivers. 2020. ⟨hal-03270736⟩
• Clément Bosquet, Pierre-Philippe Combes, Emeric Henry, Thierry Mayer. Peer Effects in Academic Research: Senders and Receivers. 2019. ⟨hal-03393072⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Gilles Duranton, Laurent Gobillon. The Cost of Agglomeration: Land Prices in Cities. Review of Economic Studies, 2019, 86 (4), pp. 1556-1589. ⟨10.1093/restud/rdy063⟩. ⟨halshs-01938356⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Laurent Gobillon, Miren Lafourcade. L'impact des variations de densité et d'accessibilité sur la productivité du travail et les salaires. Prager Jean-Claude; Thisse Jacques-François. Le Grand Paris Express: les enjeux économiques et urbains, Economica, 2019, 978-2717870626. ⟨hal-04255207⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes. A random forest approach to mine historical maps: Land use in France from the mid-18th century. 14th Meeting of the Urban Economics Association, Oct 2019, Philadelphie, United States. ⟨halshs-02498595⟩
• Clément Bosquet, Pierre-Philippe Combes, Cecilia García-Peñalosa. Gender and Promotions: Evidence from Academic Economists in France. Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 2019, 121 (3), pp.1020-1053. ⟨10.1111/sjoe.12300⟩. ⟨halshs-01661695⟩
• Marie-Pierre de Bellefon, Pierre-Philippe Combes, Gilles Duranton, Laurent Gobillon, Clément Gorin. Delineating urban areas using building density. 2019. ⟨halshs-02368040⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes. Labour Productivity Gains from the Grand Paris Express Rail Project. 4th Workshop on Spatial Dimensions of the Labour Market, Aix-Marseille Scool of Economics, Jul 2019, Aix en Provence, France. ⟨halshs-02353389⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes. Comprendre et mesurer les inégalités territoriales - La perspective de l’économie urbaine. Conférence débat organisée par la Commission des Finances, Assemblée nationale, Jun 2019, Paris, France. ⟨halshs-02197101⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Sylvie Démurger, Shi Li, Jianguo Wang. Unequal Migration and Urbanisation Gains in China. 2019. ⟨halshs-01989668⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes. Some examples of gridded data use to study the process and impact of urbanization. Global Cities Worshop, OCDE, Paris, 4 décembre 2018, Dec 2018, Paris, France. ⟨halshs-02056314⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes. A random forest approach to mine historical maps: Land use in France from the mid-18th century. Séminaire au Cemfi (Banque d'Espagne), Madrid, 15 novembre 2018, Nov 2018, Madrid, Spain. ⟨halshs-02056304⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes. Unequal Migration and Urbanisation Gains in China. 13th Meeting of the Urban Economics Association, Columbia University, New-York, 12-13 octobre 2018, Oct 2018, New York, United States. ⟨halshs-02056290⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Sylvie Démurger, Shi Li, Jianguo Wang. Unequal productivity gains in urban China. 30th EALE Conference 2018, Sep 2018, Lyon, France. ⟨halshs-01960561⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Bruno Decreuse, Benoît Schmutz, Alain Trannoy. Neighbor discrimination theory and evidence from the French rental market. Journal of Urban Economics, 2018, 104, pp. 104-123. ⟨10.1016/j.jue.2018.01.002⟩. ⟨halshs-01762930⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Gilles Duranton, Laurent Gobillon. The Production Function for Housing: Evidence from France. Sixth International conference on Industrial Organization and Spatial Economics, St Petersburg Higher School of Economics, Jun 2017, Saint-Pétersbourg, Russia. ⟨halshs-01661748⟩
• Clément Bosquet, Pierre-Philippe Combes. Sorting and agglomeration economies in French economics departments. Journal of Urban Economics, 2017, 101, pp. 27-44. ⟨10.1016/j.jue.2017.05.003⟩. ⟨halshs-01643832⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Sylvie Démurger, Shi Li. Productivity Gains from Agglomeration and Migration in the People's Republic of China between 2002 and 2013. Asian Development Review, 2017, 34 (2), pp. 184 - 200. ⟨10.1162/adev_a_00099⟩. ⟨halshs-01638247⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Sylvie Démurger, Shi Li. Productivity gains from agglomeration and migration in Chinese cities over 2002-2013. 2017. ⟨halshs-01468602⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Gilles Duranton, Laurent Gobillon. The Production Function for Housing: Evidence from France. 2016. ⟨halshs-01400852⟩
• Clément Bosquet, Pierre-Philippe Combes. Do large departments make academics more productive? Sorting and agglomeration economies in research. 2016. ⟨hal-01292851⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Bruno Decreuse, Morgane Laouenan, Alain Trannoy. Customer Discrimination and Employment Outcomes: Theory and Evidence from the French Labor Market. Journal of Labor Economics, 2016, 34 (1), pp.107--160. ⟨10.1086/682332⟩. ⟨hal-01446201⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Sylvie Démurger, Shi Li. Productivity gains from agglomeration and migration in Chinese cities over 2002-2013. ADB Conference on Urban and Regional Development in Asia, Jul 2016, Séoul, South Korea. ⟨halshs-01420835⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Gilles Duranton, Laurent Gobillon. The Production Function for Housing: Evidence from France. 2016. ⟨halshs-01412393⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Gilles Duranton, Laurent Gobillon. Salaires et salariés en Île-de-France. Revue Economique, 2015, 66 (2), pp.317-350. ⟨10.3917/reco.pr2.0039⟩. ⟨halshs-01313638⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Bruno Decreuse, Benoît Schmutz, Alain Trannoy. Neighbor Discrimination: Theory and evidence from the French rental market. 2015. ⟨hal-03568163⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Sylvie Démurger, Shi Li. Migration Externalities in China. European Economic Review, 2015, 76, pp.152 - 167. ⟨10.1016/j.euroecorev.2015.02.004⟩. ⟨halshs-01137798⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Laurent Gobillon. The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies. Duranton; G. and Henderson; J. V. and Strange; W. Handbook of Urban and Regional Economics, 5A, pp.247--348, 2015, 9780444595171. ⟨hal-01457401⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Sylvie Démurger, Shi Li. Migration externalities in Chinese cities. 2015. ⟨halshs-01128858⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Sylvie Démurger, Shi Li. Migration Externalities in Chinese Cities. 2015. ⟨hal-03459978⟩
• Clément Bosquet, Pierre-Philippe Combes, Cecilia Garcia-Peñalosa. Pourquoi les femmes occupent-elles moins de postes à responsabilité ?. LIEPP Policy Brief, 2014, 14, pp.1 - 6. ⟨hal-03541427⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Laurent Gobillon. The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies. 2014. ⟨halshs-01071761⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Laurent Gobillon. The empirics of agglomeration economies. 2014. ⟨hal-03460237⟩
• Clément Bosquet, Pierre-Philippe Combes, Cecilia Garcia-Peñalosa. Gender and Promotions: Evidence from Academic Economists in France. 2014. ⟨hal-03541384⟩
• Pierre-Philippe Combes, Bruno Decreuse, Morgane Laouenan, Alain Trannoy. Customer discrimination and employment outcomes: Theory and evidence from the French labor market. 2014. ⟨hal-03568534⟩
• Anthony Briant, Pierre-Philippe Combes, Miren Lafourcade. Product Complexity, Quality of Institutions and the Pro-Trade Effect of Immigrants. The World Economy, 2014, 37 (1), pp.63 - 85. ⟨10.1111/twec.12109⟩. ⟨halshs-00942726⟩
• Clément Bosquet, Cecilia Garcia-Peñalosa, Pierre-Philippe Combes. Le monde universitaire, un laboratoire d'analyse des différences d'avancement de carrière des hommes et des femmes. Regards croisés sur l'économie, 2014, 15 (2), pp.158--165. ⟨10.3917/rce.015.0158⟩. ⟨hal-01474263⟩
• Clément Bosquet, Pierre-Philippe Combes, Cecilia Garcia-Peñalosa. Gender and Competition: Evidence from Academic Promotions in France. 2013. ⟨hal-01070521⟩
• Clément Bosquet, Pierre-Philippe Combes, Cecilia García-Peñalosa. Gender and Competition: Evidence from Academic Promotions in France. 2013. ⟨halshs-00875204⟩