Chloé de Meulenaer

Public economics, political economics, behavioural economics
c[dot]de-meulenaer[at]lse.ac.uk copy
/klo-eh duh mö-luh-nar/

I'm a PhD student at the London School of Economics under the supervision of Camille Landais and Johannes Spinnewijn.

My research lies at the intersection of public, behavioural, and political economics. I use custom surveys to explore the formation of policy preferences towards inequality reduction, and the mechanisms underlying those preferences.

I am particularly interested in exploring the disconnect between the set of policies that garner public support, and those deemed optimal by economic models.

CV download

Working papers

Comparing universes of redistributive arguments
with Morten Nyborg Støstad, Max Lobeck (working paper on request)

We use natural language processing models to identify and classify all speeches in favor of redistribution in the U.S. Congressional Record (2015–2022), analyzing how redistributive arguments differ in tone and content. We distinguish between arguments that primarily appeal to fairness and those that emphasize the negative societal consequences of inequality. Fairness-based arguments contain emotional language with high levels of compassion and anger, whereas consequence-based arguments disproportionately rely on logical reasoning. We replicate these results in a controlled survey experiment that elicits arguments from U.S. citizens, where consequence-based arguments also express more fear. We then gather 32,300 evaluations of these arguments, showing that consequence-based arguments achieve comparable persuasion with fewer emotional reactions. Fairness arguments are more persuasive among respondents with lower incomes and lower education levels, however, and generate significantly greater outrage in recipients. Overall, fairness arguments appear likely to mobilize stronger political reactions, while consequence-based arguments may resonate with more moderate audiences. We suggest that differences in how these arguments are used across countries may explain variation in redistributive outcomes and political tone.

Attitudes towards the inheritance tax and demand for redistribution (working paper on request)

I use new survey data from France to explore attitudes towards the inheritance tax and demand for redistribution. Although the inheritance tax is very unpopular, respondents show significant support for redistributive forms of taxation, namely for taxing capital income and the bequests of parents who have themselves inherited. I also find that a large share of the variation in support for the inheritance tax is explained by whether participants believe that taxes mostly enhance fairness or harm the economy. This suggests that some respondents' apparently low demand for redistribution may stem from their lack of trust in the power of taxes to effectively redistribute. I then analyze how these preferences shift when exposed to two arguments: one highlighting wealth inequality, the other defending parents' right to bequeath their hard-earned savings. The inequality argument increases support for the inheritance and capital income taxes. Surprisingly, the second argument also increases support for the capital income tax and mildly increases support for the inheritance tax. I interpret this last finding as evidence of backfiring, echoing the strong political polarization on the topic of the inheritance tax.

Work in progress

Perceptions of tax evasion and tax enforcement
with Daniel Reck

Peer effects and insurance choice quality
with Johannes Spinnewijn, Ben Handel, and Jon Kolstad

Teaching

2022 LSE Class Teacher Awards: Highly Commended

London School of Economics

EC325 Public Economics (2024/25) Lecturers Camille Landais, Kate Smith Teaching evaluations 2024/25 AT (4.9/5) 2024/25 WT (4.9/5)

EC1A1 Microeconomics I (2021/23) Lecturer Dimitra Petropoulou Teaching evaluations 2021/22 (4.8/5) 2022/23 (4.8/5)

EC1A3 Introduction to Microeconomics (2021/23)
Lecturer Ronny Razin Teaching evaluations 2021/22 (4.5/5) 2022/23 (4.7/5)

Université Libre de Bruxelles

ECONS1001 Microeconomics I (2016/18) Lecturers Julien Ravet, Renaud Foucart

ECONS102 Introduction to Macroeconomics (2015/18) Lecturer Pierre-Guillaume Méon

MATHS101 Mathematics I (2015/18) Lecturer Marjorie Gassner