Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Zurich. Growth / Climate Change / inequality / innovation

David Hémous retweeted
Très intéressant. Le changement des structures de l’Etat est explicitement annoncé. Il a donc donc un candidat, en position de remporter l’élection présidentielle, qui propose la fin de notre démocratie. Et personne pour analyser cette proposition et la prendre au sérieux.
Si nous remportons l'élection présidentielle, il faudra que vous participiez toutes et tous à la lutte pour transformer de fond en comble la société. Nous devrons accomplir une transition de l'état actuel du rapport capitaliste dans la société à une autre forme d'organisation de la société. Pour cela, il faudra d'une part un gouvernement qui transforme la réalité de l'État et d'autre part, une implication populaire de masse.
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David Hémous retweeted
This is actually true and is quite a shock if you try it. Basically everything has at least one minor objective mistake despite the peer review. I suggested to AEA: AI technical review and author response before even bothering to send it to referees.
Run a frontier LLM reviewer agent over *any* manuscript from the before times or most now and 😱😱😱
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David Hémous retweeted
1/3 J'ai encore été insulté par des dizaines (centaine ?) de personnes de la fan base de @JLMelenchon Suite à ce Tweet. Pour tant j'ai fourni 3 screens de personnes différentes.
Comment @JLMelenchon peut reprendre un truc pareil ?!!!! Il a complètement dévissé ou son cm fait de la merde ?
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David Hémous retweeted
Among many other problems, misses the fact that economic growth has become increasingly decoupled from resource use over time. Finite resources do not mean growth has to end. See Conor Walsh on materials (figure below), and Walsh, McDonald & Pinardon-Touati on CO2/energy
Replying to @PikettyWIL
The key finding of the report is that energy transition alone will not suffice. We need to combine it with "sufficiency" to stay within 2 degrees. This includes labour hour reductions, growth caps in rich countries, less material consumption, and changes in food habits.
Community note
This report uses a ~4.8°C baseline. In May 2026, the U.N. climate panel officially retired this scenario (RCP8.5) as "implausible." Updated projection: ~3.5°C. Sources: NYT & Washington Post, May 2026. nytimes.com/2026/05/26/cli… washingtonpost.com/climate-enviro… lemonde.fr/en/environment…
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Ils se surpassent toujours! Les profits découlant de l’innovation ont de fortes fluctuations d’une année à l’autre. Les profits découlants de rentes beaucoup moins. Comment décourager l’innovation, encourager les rentes et scléroser un peu plus le pays en une seule proposition!
Notre proposition de taxation des surprofits est claire et précise : On prend la moyenne des bénéfices des trois dernières années de toutes les entreprises dépassant 750 millions de CA. On compare ensuite cette moyenne aux profits réalisés dans les prochains trimestres. Ce qui dépasse la moyenne, c'est le surprofit et c'est uniquement sur cette base qu'ils sont taxés.
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David Hémous retweeted
Notre proposition de taxation des surprofits est claire et précise : On prend la moyenne des bénéfices des trois dernières années de toutes les entreprises dépassant 750 millions de CA. On compare ensuite cette moyenne aux profits réalisés dans les prochains trimestres. Ce qui dépasse la moyenne, c'est le surprofit et c'est uniquement sur cette base qu'ils sont taxés.
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David Hémous retweeted
People keep using the word "irrational" when describing the general public's opposition to AI. That word has meaning. Let's start with the colloquial: making consistent decisions against one's best interests given information that one has. What is the current information people have? On the one hand, they have the chatbots. For most people, they are fun and sometimes helpful on the margin. Adoption in consequential contexts has been spotty and surveys show very mixed attitudes in those settings (see 2025 BCG survey). On the other hand, you have the heads of almost every AI company saying that AI will 1) lead to *huge* job losses and 2) potentially much much worse. There is some vague hand waving about curing cancer or going to space, but the main message is "it is coming for your job and your life". Putting the two together, you get exactly what you see in the data: "I like these chatbots, but I do not like AI and I do not want it to get better or expand." This is not a contradiction. The former refers to the current chatbots that people ask random questions, the latter represents the thing that everyone in power tells them will take their jobs. The response in DC and the coasts has been: you don't know what's good for you, move out of the way, you're stupid and irrational. How has that response worked out the last 15 years? If those who see the positives, the huge potential benefits of AI to grow the pie and make life better for all (which includes myself), do not take this political economy into account, I'm afraid that the populist wave of the last decade will look like child's play. A dress rehearsal.
Whenever @sama speaks, the antiAI coalition gets stronger. Today's weird analogy: Hey, meat computers are more inefficient to train than silicon ones! (which, on top of everything, is wrong)
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What would taxing unrealized capital gains — or wealth — do to entrepreneurship? If illiquid founders must sell shares to pay such taxes, how does this extra dilution affect incentives? 🧵 on my new paper with Eduardo Azevedo, @KentOnMoney & Min Yang 1/10
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#Nobelpreis2025: Führt schöpferische Zerstörung zu einem nachhaltigen #Wirtschaftswachstum? Die diesjährigen Preisträger haben die Antwort und zudem enge Kontakte zur Universität Zürich. 👉dievolkswirtschaft.ch/de/?p=… @davidhem @econ_uzh @UZH_ch
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David Hémous retweeted
UZH has a strong crop of econ job market candidates this year - and I am the placement director. If you are hiring, hit me up for further advice! econ.uzh.ch/en/study/phd/zur… #econtwitter #econjobs
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David Hémous retweeted
🚨 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics goes to Mokyr, Aghion and Howitt 🚨 "for having explained innovation-driven economic growht" The best prize in years!
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This is a wonderful prize. Philippe has truly been the centerpiece of research in economic growth for the last 30 years. His communicative energy has pushed the field forward and his contribution is immense. I am extremely happy to see my mentor and co-author recognized this way!
BREAKING NEWS The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2025 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt “for having explained innovation-driven economic growth” with one half to Mokyr “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress” and the other half jointly to Aghion and Howitt “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction.” #NobelPrize
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Philippe is a brilliant researcher and economist but he is also a wonderful advisor. He is eager to work with students and to teach them, and I have immensely benefited from him.
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I am delighted to share that Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will join our Department of Economics @econ_uzh at the University of Zurich on July 1, 2026, as Lemann Foundation Professors of Economics. 🧵 1/7
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David Hémous retweeted
Puisque c'est dans l'actualité, je me permets de ressortir ce papier publié en 2019 avec plusieurs (supers) coauteurs qui montre un lien causal entre ⬆️ des inégalités aux US et l'innovation Nous estimions que 1/4 de la ⬆️ de la part du top 1% peut être expliqué par ce canal
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Unquestionably the most dangerous and corrupt attack on the independence of US economic data in American history. Trump is firing the head of the BLS, an longtime civil servant confirmed 86-8 by the Senate, simply because the job numbers came in below his expectations today
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David Hémous retweeted
Il n’y a pas de contradiction: tout le monde est matraqué fiscalement et subventionné en même temps. La tuyauterie est totalement opaque, le système hyper compliqué, qu’il crée la suspicion légitime que le premier qui renoncera à son bout de lard sera le dindon de la farce. Probablement à raison. Il faudrait organiser une désescalade coordonnée de la grande bataille pour l’argent des autres, mais la tâche est rendue titanesque par les sommes en question et le fait que personne ne sait qui reçoit quoi ou paye quoi.
"Ils sont contradictoires": pour Pierre Moscovici, les Français sont "prêts à faire un effort collectif" mais pas forcément individuel l.bfmtv.com/ClfH
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David Hémous retweeted
The figures here tell the story better than the abstract
Not having kids is not a remotely effective climate mitigation strategy
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David Hémous retweeted
C’est quand même vraiment complètement fou.
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David Hémous retweeted
Analyzing a model of green technological transition along a supply chain, from Philippe Aghion, Lint Barrage, Eric Donald, @davidhem, and @ErnestLiuEcon nber.org/papers/w33934
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