Jean-Louis Combes

Jean-Louis Combes has been a full Professor of Economics at the School of Economics, Université Clermont Auvergne (France) since 1999. He obtained his Ph.D. in economics in 1993. Combes is currently a visiting researcher at Cemis for three months. Their research project with Professor S. Vollmer investigates the following research question: Did the German Industrial Revolution foster a 'deskilling' of workers?

The standard view and the Unified Growth Theories consider that technological progress favours skilled workers. The mechanisation that results from the Industrial Revolution should favour the accumulation of human capital and working skills. In other words, technological progress is expected to foster the demand for human capital. However, this view stems from the 20th century's pieces of evidence. Social movements in the 19th century, particularly Luddism in Great Britain, revealed the hostility of artisans and skilled workers to the mechanisation process resulting from the Industrial Revolution. However, there has never been a consensus on the thesis of a disqualifying technical advance. Our research project explores and tests the deskilling hypothesis by compiling German historical data.

Teaching:
Jean-Louis Combes is the academic adviser for the Master's degree in Development Economics at the Université Clermont Auvergne. He teaches undergraduate and graduate students in macroeconomics, development macroeconomics, environmental macroeconomics, econometrics and development economics.

Research:
Jean-Louis Combes is affiliated with the Laboratoire d’Economie d’Orléans (the Orléans Economics Laboratory, LEO ). His research interests relate to development economics, fiscal and monetary policies, macroeconomics and environment, and cliometrics. His publications appear in the Economic Journal, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Journal of International Money and Finance, Journal of Macroeconomics, and Ecological Economics. He currently supervises 6 Ph.D. students.