Uniting
Research and Policy

Laure Athias' research explores the roots and consequences of state capacity in public services delivery, regulation, and public infrastructure investment in both "developed" and "developing" countries. Her work emphasizes the critical role of culture in building state capacity. Currently, her research draws on philosophical perspectives to examine the normative dimension of states—their symbolic meaning in the social imaginary, how it varies across societies, the influence of religion, its interplay with state capacity and formal institutions, and its impact on societal values and inclusivity.

As an Associate Professor at the University of Lausanne, Laure Athias serves as the Vice-Head of the Swiss School of Public Policy. Her work has been supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, and many other government grants.  She is currently a Visiting Scholar at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. She earned her PhD in economics from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon–Sorbonne, with part of her doctoral studies conducted as an invited Visiting PhD Student at Yale University's Department of Economics.