Julia CAGÉ

Julia CAGÉ is Full Professor of Economics since 2024 - she joined the Department in 2014 and was tenured in 2021. In 2018 she became the Co-director of LIEPP's "Evaluation of Democracy" research group. She is also a CEPR Research Fellow.

Her research focuses on political economy, industrial organization and economic history. She is particularly interested in media economics, political participation and political attitudes. Her research has been published in a number of peer-reviewed international journals such as the American Economic Review, the Journal of Public Economics, the Review of Economic Studies, the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, the American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, Explorations in Economic History, the Journal of International Economics, and the European Economic Review.

In 2021 she was awarded an European Research Council Starting Grant for her 5-year project Campaign Finance, Information and Influence: A ComprehensIve Approach Using Individual-Level Data and Computer Science Tools (PARTICIPATE) which studies, notably, blindspots in the economic literature on the funding of political parties and the representativity of candidates for their electoral campaigns.

Her latest research projects, selected recently by McCourt Institute for substantial grants in 2022 and 2023, explore issues related to information in the digital age (the spread of disinformation on social media and online news) but also look at resolving them (how to slow down disinformation, how to ensure access to quality information).

In 2023, she was Laureate of the Best Young French Economist Award (ex aequo) bestowed by the Le Cercle des économistes and Le Monde.

Julia Cagé is also well-known to the general public for her books in which she proposes concrete, radical solutions after meticulously scrutinizing her topic. She has authored three books on the media, one of which - Saving the Media. Capitalism, Crowdfunding and Democracy (Paris, Le Seuil, 2015) - was awarded the Special Jury Prize for Best Book on Media of the 2016 edition of the “Prix des Assises du Journalisme”. Her latest critically acclaimed work « The Price of Democracy » (at Fayard in 2018, English edition at Harvard University Press, 2020) was awarded the Prix Pétrarque de l’essai by Le Monde and France Culture in 2019. Most recently she co-authored a book with Thomas Piketty "Une histoire du conflit politique. Elections et inégalités sociales en France, 1789-2022", edited by Seuil and published in September 2023.

After completing her university studies at Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) and Paris School of Economics, Julia Cagé obtained her PhD at Harvard University in 2014.

To learn more about Julia CAGÉ, consult her website

featured publications

• "The Heterogeneous Price of a Vote: Evidence from Multiparty Systems, 1993-2017" (with Yasmine Bekkouche, ULB, and Edgard Dewitte, Sciences Po Paris). Journal of Public Economics, forthcoming.
• "The Production of Information in an Online World" (with Nicolas Hervé, INA, and Marie-Luce Viaud, INA), Review of Economic Studies, 2020, 87(5): 2126-2164.
• “Media Competition, Information Provision and Political Participation: Evidence from French Local Newspapers and Elections, 1944-2014”, Journal of Public Economics, 2020, 85.
• L'Information est un bien public. Refonder la propriété des médias, with Benoît Huet. Paris, Le Seuil, 2021
• Le prix de la démocratie, Paris, Fayard, 2018.
• "Small Campaign Donors" (with Laurent Bouton, Georgetown U, Edgard Dewitte, SciencesPo Paris, and Vincent Pons, Harvard Business School).
• "Hosting Media Bias: Evidence from the Universe of French Television and Radio Shows, 2002-2020" (with Moritz Hengel, Sciences Po Paris, Nicolas Hervé, INA, and Camille Urvoy, University of Mannheim).
• "Is Charitable Giving Political? New Evidence from Wealth and Income Tax Returns" (with Malka Guillot, HEC Liège).
• "Social Media and Newsroom Production Decisions" (with Nicolas Hervé, INA, and Béatrice Mazoyer, INA).
• "It Takes Money to Make MPs : New Evidence from 150 Years of British Campaign Spending" (with Edgard Dewitte, Sciences Po Paris). Submitted.

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