Professor Alice Mesnard

Overview

Professor Alice Mesnard is an applied economist working with experimental and non experimental methodologies. Specializing in the economics of migration, health and education, her research has focused on public policy’s role in improving economic and human development. She has led research projects funded by the ESRC, the Hewlett foundation, GCRF, DFID, the European Commission, NORFACE, the AFD among other research and development agencies and has published in international peer-reviewed journals (e.g. Economic Journal, Journal of Human Resources, European Economic Review, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Public Economics...).

As a Senior Research Economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (London) from 2003 to 2010, she has gained expertise in public policy evaluation and has analysed policies related to migration, education (Conditional Cash Transfer programmes), labour market programmes (New Deal in the UK) and health (health insurance, demand for health care, maternal health, nutrition, mental health and infectious diseases). She has also contributed to quasi-experimental, experimental, and empirical research projects involving large data collections in China, Colombia, France, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra-Leone, and Tanzania.

Qualifications

• Fellow, High Education Association (UK), United Kingdom, December 2023
• Habilitation a Diriger des Recherches, Toulouse 1 Capitole University, France, June 2010
• PhD, École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), France, 1999
• European Doctoral Programme, EHESS (Paris) and LSE (London School of Economics), France, 1999
• Diploma «Ingénieur, Statisticien, Economiste», National School of Statistics and Economics (ENSAE ParisTech), France, 1993

Employment

• Professor, City, University of London, United Kingdom, August 2024 - present
• Deputy Head, City, University of London, United Kingdom, September 2023 - present
• Visiting Professor, Aix-Marseille University, France, May - June 2023
• Visiting Researcher, Sciences Po, France, February - May 2023
• Visiting Researcher, Paris Dauphine University, France, January - February 2023
• Chair of the Academic Board of the London Campus, Paris Dauphine University, France, September 2021 - present
• Visiting Professor, Paris School of Economics, France, January 2014 - January 2016
• Visiting Professor, Paris Dauphine University, Paris, France, January - April 2014
• Programme Director of the MSc Development Economics, City, University of London, United Kingdom, September 2010 - September 2018
• Reader in Economics, City, University of London, United Kingdom, 2010 - present
• Visiting Professor, University of Toulouse, France, 2009
• Senior Research Economist, Institute for Fiscal Studies, United Kingdom, January 2004 - January 2010
• Visiting Researcher, University College London / IFS, United Kingdom, January 2003 - January 2004
• Associate Professor, University of Toulouse, France, January 1999 - January 2003

Administrative roles

• Deputy Head of Department, City University of London, July 2023 - present
• Chair of the Academic Board of the London Campus, Paris Dauphine University, September 2021 - present
• Programme director of the MSc Development Economics, City University of London, September 2010 - September 2018

Memberships of professional organisations

• Member of the Executive Committee, European Development Research Network (EUDN)
• External Fellow, CREAM, Center for Research and Analysis of Migration, London
• Research Associate, EdePo, Institute for Fiscal Studies, London
• Research affiliate, CEPR, Center for Economic Policy Research, London

Languages

English (can read, write, speak, understand spoken, peer review), French (can read, write, speak, understand spoken, peer review), German (can read) and Spanish; Castilian (can read)

Teaching

Teaching Interests

Development Economics, Population Economics, Migration, Applied Econometrics, Social Policies, Public Economics.

Teaching Experience

2010-to present: Lectures at City University in Development Economics to PG and UG Students. Lectures in Applied Econometrics to third year UG students. Lectures in Applied Microeconomics to first year UG students. Lectures in Research Methods to PG students.

2014 onwards : Lectures in «Social Policies in developing countries» to PG students in Master PPD at the Paris School of Economics.

2005, 2006: Lectures in Public Economics to UG Students in Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

1999-2003: Core Module in Development Economics to PG students in Toulouse University

1999-2003: Core Module in Development Economics to students training for “Ingenieur” special diploma in Toulouse University.

1999-2003 : Core Module on Economics to first year undergraduate students in Law. Organised experimental games to simulate market mechanisms.

1999-2001 : Trained teachers in France to prepare for the French national “Agregation” competition which gives them the title of Professor. Lectures in population economics.

1997-1999 : Lectures in microeconomics to undergraduate students at the University of Paris 2.

Grants I received for my research projects

2022-2024 “Scol’ectiv - Engaging Teachers and Parents through Computer-Aided Learning: The Impact of a Personalised Application on Newly Arrived Allophone Students’ Learning, Integration and Development”. Co-Principal Investigator with F.Gubert and A.Touw (IRD-DIAL, Dauphine University) to pilot a randomized control trial with a fund of €48,166.18 from JPAL, European Social Inclusion Initiative (ESII) (RFP Round 3).
In collaboration with researchers in psycho-linguistic in the universities of Lilles, Creteil and Montpellier, the tech start-up LearnEnjoy, and school teachers in France, we develop and analyse the impacts of a personalised application to help refugee children integration and learning in schools while engaging with teachers and parents through computer-aided learning.

2018 -Present After receiving with two colleagues at City a GCRF Research Prize to build a research and cooperation network on Displacement and Development in South Asia (SANDD), we are building a large project to study the impacts of climate change on the resilience of communities in Pakistan involving sociologist, agronomist, and economist co-investigators and local partners in Pakistan, Canada and the UK.

2018-2023 I received a €35K grant to evaluate the impacts of migration policies on irregular crossings to Europe as part of the European Commission Research and Innovation Programme Horizon 2020 project on “Migration Governance and Asylum Crises” (MAGYc) led by PI François Gemenne (Liege University) under Grant agreement project number 822806. With an interdisciplinary team of political scientists based at Sciences-Po (Paris) and economists, we study the deflection effects of externalisation of migration policies adopted by European countries on flows of irregular migrants and refugees to Europe.

2016 I was commissioned by the Center for Global Development (Washington, London) to write a paper on policies against human smuggling (UK 7.5K) and visited them as Fellow.

2009-2013 AFD-AIRD-IRD-HEWLETT “Health Risks and Migration”. Principal Investigator. Funded by the Wiliam and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Agence Française de Développement, the Institut de Recherches pour le Développement under the Grant #2008-2165 (€270K) this project involves partnerships with medical doctors and health sciences researchers in Sub-Sahara Africa to study the links between health risks such as infectious diseases and decisions made by poor households.

2010-2012 NORFACE consortium. As project lead in the TEMPO project on “Temporary Migration Policies” I received €20K to write the paper “Sale of Visas: A Smuggler's Final Song?”.

2008-2012 Hewlett-ESRC ESRC reference RES-183-25-0008 “Effects of Reproductive Health on Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa” Co-Investigator. With a team of development and health economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and partners in Malawi we evaluate and analyse the effects of nutrition, maternal and health interventions in Malawi. (£380,724K)

2007 ESRC Reference RES-000-22-1742 “School supply and the effectiveness of Conditional Cash Transfers” Principal investigator. (£40K) This project analyses the interactions between a demand side intervention improving children education and health in Colombia, the Conditional Cash Transfer programme Familias en Accion - and the quality of schools.

2007-2009 DFID-ESRC ESRC reference: RES-167-25-0124 “Human Capital Accumulation and Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries”. Co-applicant with IFS team (£621,257K)

2005-2006 Department for Work and Pensions (UK) Reference Number 11c/04/dwp “Ethnic Parity in Jobcentre Plus Programmes and mainstream services”. Co-applicant. (£192,417K)

Current research interests

Dr. Mesnard’s current research studies the drivers and impacts of migration and the integration of refugees in host countries. This led her to collaborate in a large interdisciplinary H2020 project with political scientists to study the impacts of border closure in Europe on refugees and irregular migrants. She is also a founding member of the South Asia Network for Displacement and Development (SANDD) which was formed under the UKRI’s GCRF scheme and which aims to increase interdisciplinary collaboration and regional cooperation in conducting research that helps climate change-affected South Asian communities develop resilience strategies.

Research impacts

She has been strongly involved in the policy debate about how to weaken smuggling markets. Her research designs novel systems of visas to fight against human smuggling and meet labour market needs of host countries.
You can watch her speaking on TV5 Monde about pricing the smugglers out of the market : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlvFCWWvMRU or watch here a video illustrating some research impacts.

She has also applied her findings about legalization policies to the cannabis market. Here research proposes to regulate it through the implementation of a legal market combined with strong enforcement of sanctions against illegal activities. The findings feature in a report of the Economic Advisory Committee of the French government (CAE) on how to legalise cannabis in France and have been discussed by the French National Assembly.”

Her research has been mainly devoted to understanding the role of public policies in improving human development.

Public policies she has been studying are mainly related to migration, education (Conditional Cash Transfer programme "Familias en Acción" in Colombia), health (maternal health and nutrition programmes in Malawi, Health Insurance in Nigeria, Quarantine measures after the outbreak of infectious diseases such as Ebola) and labour market (New Deal programmes in the UK).

Research grants awarded

2010-2013: AFD-AIRD-IRD-HEWLETT “Health Risks and Migration in Sub-Saharan Africa” . Principal Investigator. Analysis of two large socio-economic surveys in Nigeria and Tanzania. (270K Euros)

2010-2012: NORFACE consortium. Co-applicant. (20K for research paper on Human Smuggling).

2008-2012 : Hewlett-ESRC ESRC reference RES-183-25-0008 “Effects of Reproductive Health on Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa” Co-applicant. Data collection and analysis of nutrition and maternal health interventions in Malawi. (£380,724.)

2007: ESRC Reference RES-000-22-1742 “School supply and the effectiveness of Conditional Cash Transfers” Principal investigator. (£40K)

2007-2009 : DFID-ESRC ESRC reference: RES-167-25-0124 “Human Capital Accumulation and Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries”. Co-applicant. ( £621,257)

2005-2006 : Department for Work and Pensions (UK) Reference Number 11c/04/dwp “Ethnic Parity in Jobcentre Plus Programmes and mainstream services”. Co-applicant. (£192,417)

September 2003 -April 2004 : Training Mobility Research to work at UCL / IFS (London).

September 1994-September 1997: doctoral grant from the Center for Econometrics and Statistics (CREST, Malakoff), specialised on advanced and applied econometrics and microeconomics.

Publications by category