Michel is an INRA research director within the TSE-GREMAQ research
centre, and a member of the IDEI. He obtained his PhD in finance at GREMAQ in
1984 and entered the INRA shortly after, where he has carried out his entire
career, initially at the regional INRA regional centre in Auzeville (Toulouse
outskirts), and after 20 years back within GREMAQ, when the INRA Agricultural
Economics department moved to TSE.
(1) Why did you choose to work at TSE?
After leaving GREMAQ in 1984, I maintained strong links with a number of GREMAQ researchers. I also had the chance to work with Jean-Jacques Laffont, a mentor for me, alongside Quang Vuong. My return to TSE-GREMAQ in 2007 was hence like a homecoming, the occasion to formalise a number of fruitful INRA-GREMAQ collaborations carried out over the years.
(2) How would you describe your research to the general public?
I consume and decode data! More specifically, I work in econometrics applied to agricultural and food markets. The guiding principle of my research is to use the most recent econometric tools to shed light on issues related to these markets.
The past ten years, one of my main research themes was asymmetric price transmission along food marketing chains. My work addressed the following question: when the cost of raw products increases, do food chain intermediaries (mainly retailers) transfer these increased costs to consumers more quickly than they would transfer a reduction in costs? Using econometric tools, I showed that price transmission was most often symmetric in the French fruit and vegetable market. This result was in total contradiction with general assumptions, but consistent with results found by researchers in other countries.
(3) How does this research impact on society?
My research on asymmetric price transmission was funded by the French Ministry of Agriculture and was presented during sessions of the Observatoire des prix et des marchés, an assembly made up of producers, manufacturers, and retailers involved in food marketing channels in France. Presenting my results to this assembly was a real challenge, as my results were somewhat controversial and led to serious debate within the assembly. I felt somewhat cast to the lions! Luckily, the tomato producers refrained from throwing their goods at me…
(4) A current or upcoming highlight in your work?
I am currently working on several projects linked to the productivity of firms in the food industry.
Within one project, funded by the French Research Agency (ANR), I propose a novel methodology using econometric tools to assess the impact of sanitary or environmental regulations on the productivity of food industry firms. Several of my GREMAQ and LERNA colleagues are involved in this project.
With French and Italian colleagues, I have recently begun to study the impact of pollution abatement investments on the performance of firms in the food industry.
(5) What do you do to escape research?
I sing! I’m a bass in two Toulouse-based choral groups. One of the groups is focused on classic pieces (renaissance, baroque), and the other, a group of 6 male voices, has a more varied repertoire, including Hallelujah, Stand by Me, Leonard Cohen, Schubert…