Pascale Combes Motel

Pascale Combes Motel has been a full Professor of Economics at the School of Economics, Université Clermont Auvergne, since 1999. She obtained a degree in agricultural engineering in 1988 and her PhD in economics in 1992. Before being appointed Associate Professor at the University of Caen Basse Normandie in 1993, she was a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Economics at Université Laval (Québec, Canada). 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:
Pascale Combes Motel supervises two tracks of the Master's degree taught at the School of Economics: the "Développement durable" track (Sustainable development) with Professor Sonia Schwartz and the English-taught track "Development Economics" with Professor J-L. Combes. She is the local director of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master's Degree GLODEP (Global Development Policy), which welcomed its first cohort of students in 2018.

She teaches in French and English from Bachelor to Master's level: macroeconomics, macro-dynamics, optimisation for economists, environmental and natural resource economics, and the economics of sustainable development.

Research:
Pascale Combes Motel is affiliated with the LEO (Laboratoire d’Economie d’Orléans – Orléans Economics Laboratory). Her research interests relate to the economics of sustainable development, tropical deforestation, energy transition, and protected areas. She has published in the Journal of African Economics, Revue Economique, Economic Modelling, Environment and Development Economics, Energy Economics, World Development, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Economic Modelling, and Ecological Economics. She currently supervises 6 PhD students. She serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Forest Economics and International Economics.