On February 21, 2024, the SCOR Foundation held a webinar titled: "Inequalities, Family Structure and Human Capital", presented by SCOR Foundation Chairman Pierre-André Chiappori.

The webinar looked at the  influence of changing family structures on wealth and inequalities, with a special reference to the situation in the US, where numerous economists have pointed to an inequality explosion.

Family structure is an aspect of inequality often neglected by economists, even though it plays a substantial role. Pierre-André Chiappori presented the most recent results of his research on the topic, focusing in particular on one structural evolution: the fact that marriages are increasingly taking place between people of the same level of education. This is a key factor in terms of understanding not just the forces driving the recent increase of inequalities, but also upcoming trends in the life (re)insurance business.

Pierre-André Chiappori, Chairman

Pierre-André Chiappori was born in Monaco in 1955. He has dual French and Monégasque citizenship.

Having passed the entrance examinations for the École polytechnique and the École normale supérieure in 1974, he chose to attend the latter. In 1977 he passed the competitive Agrégation teaching exam in Mathematics, then in 1981 completed a PhD in Economics at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. He was then an Assistant Professor at University of Paris, and subsequently a university lecturer at the French School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS). He was a Research Fellow and then Research Director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) from 1989 to 1997, and from 1992 to 1997 also taught at ENSAE – a French Grande École specializing in Economics, Data Science, Quantitative Social Sciences, Finance and Actuarial Science. In 1997, he became a Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago. Since 2005, he has been the E. Rowan and Barbara Steinschneider Professor of Economics at Columbia University.

His work focuses mainly on contract theory, risk and insurance issues, and family economics. He has authored or co-authored eight books and more than 100 articles in French and English, published in international economic reviews. In 2008, his book “Insurance: Theoretical Analysis and Policy Implications”, edited jointly with Christian Gollier, received the Kulp-Wright Book Award for the best book on insurance from the American Risk and Insurance Association. He has been and is currently a member of the editorial boards of several international reviews.

Pierre-André Chiappori is a member of the Scientific Councils of the French Asset Management Association (AFG), the Observatoire de l'Epargne Européenne (OEE) and the Institut Europlace de Finance-Louis Bachelier (IEF), and of international companies such as the SCOR group. He chairs the Scientific Councils of the Paris School of Economics (PSE) and the Monegasque Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, as well as the Advisory Board of the International University of Monaco. He is also a member of the Council of the Becker-Friedmann Institute for Research in Economics at the University of Chicago, of which is a Distinguished Fellow, and sits on the boards of several companies, including Monaco Asset Management, SCOR Re US and SCOR Global Life Americas. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, the Economic Association, the Society of Labor Economists, the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory and the Institut Louis Bachelier. In 2010, he was awarded the Zerilli Marimo prize for the entirety of his work by the Political Economy, Statistics and Finance section of the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. In 2013, Université Laval in Québec awarded him an Honorary Degree in Social Sciences.

Pierre-André Chiappori is a member of the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences (he was elected on June 26, 2017, to the chair of the academic Pierre Bauchet) and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.