Placement: PhD Agricultural and Resource Economics, Berkeley

As a Pre-Doctoral Fellow with EPIC,  Sébastien worked on the Social Cost of Carbon project with Michael Greenstone. His research explored the impact of global warming on the economy, including labor productivity, mortality rate, and agriculture yields, among other economic factors.

Sébastien received his B.A. in Economics from Ecole Normale Supérieure, in his home country of France, and an M.A. in Energy and Environmental Economics from Université Paris-Dauphine. Prior to joining EPIC, he worked on assessing the impact of intermittent renewable energies on electricity prices as a research assistant at the Chaire European Electricity Markets.

In 2014, he continued his research on electricity prices as a research assistant for Steve Cicala. In between his two academic research experiences, Sébastien worked on several projects related to energy markets regulation at Compass Lexecon, an economic consulting company.

“I am mostly interested in the electricity market because it has been and continues to be subject to a lot of innovations, like renewable energy, electricity storage, smart network and smart meters, and demand side management,” he said.

As an undergraduate, Sébastien had a growing interest for studying energy topics after realizing the energy industry can have the highest negative effects on the environment. His B.A. thesis at the Ecole Normale Superieure focused on the impact of environmental regulations on firm relocation, demonstrating how energy companies cannot easily be relocated in countries with low environmental standards, forcing them instead to adapt and innovate.

With an understanding of the intersection between the environment and energy industries, Sebastian was excited to have joined EPIC.

“EPIC is a quite new laboratory but is growing very fast and it is full of talented people, and I wanted to be a part of it,” he said.

Sébastien looked forward to working closely with faculty and staff while exploring research in energy topics.

“People are close to each other and easy to talk to,” he said. “I know that I will learn from their experiences, both in terms of academic skills and on a personal level.”