Chloé Lavest

Ongoing Research

• Beyond the Integration Paradox With Lucas Drouhot, Meta van der Linden and Frank van Tubergen
  Highly educated minority individuals perceive more ethnic discrimination than their less educated counterparts – a now well-established finding referred to as the “integration paradox”. In this paper, we study whether this purported paradox captures general educational effects on the lived experiences of historically disadvantaged populations going beyond the scope of integration among immigrants. We do so by comparing educational effects on perceptions of ethnic discrimination among ethnic minorities with educational effects on perceptions of gender discrimination among women. We also study the discrimination experiences of the majority population, as well as intersectional dimensions in the experiences of minority women and those reporting multiple grounds for discrimination. Analyses based on representative data from two cross-sectional surveys in France - Trajectoires et Origines 1 and 2 – involving over 35,000 respondents, uncover a notable trend: highly educated individuals, including both ethnic minorities and women, are more likely to report discrimination, and that those who report discrimination on one ground are also more likely to report it on another ground. Our results suggest that the so-called integration paradox reflects more general educational effects on subjective experiences of exclusion that are not unique to immigrant-origin populations. | Slides
• Growing up Disillusioned? With Lucas Drouhot, Meta van der Linden and Frank van Tubergen
  Minority youth exhibit high educational expectations across multiple European countries. Previous research has focused on how this contributes to reducing inequalities between second-generation children and children of natives through higher grades and enrollment rates in tertiary education, overlooking that high educational expectations might have negative consequences when unfulfilled. We address this gap by investigating how unmet educational expectations influence perceptions of discrimination among youth exiting school in Spain. We utilize a three-wave panel of second-generation children living in Spain, interviewed between the ages of 14 and 22. Using detailed information on their educational expectations and achieved educational levels, we assess whether unmet expectations correlate with increased perceptions of discrimination. We examine the heterogeneity in the impact of unmet expectations, hypothesizing that children with highly educated parents are more likely to perceive discrimination. Our findings indicate that children who exit the educational system earlier exhibit heightened perceptions of discrimination when their exit does not meet their expectations. Although we find that parental education is positively associated with discrimination perceptions among children, we find no evidence for interaction effects with unmet expectations. Children of highly educated parents thus appear more attuned to discrimination in general, but not more likely to frame their experiences of failure as discriminatory. | Slides
• What Am I Discriminated For? Discrimination awareness spillover effects for multiply disadvantaged groups. With Merlin Schaeffer
  We study whether multiply disadvantaged individuals (compared to uniquely disadvantaged ones) interpret information about discrimination of one of their ingroups. Using a survey experiment, we investigate whether threat to one outgroup generalizes to other outgroups. Furthermore, for uniquely disadvantaged individuals we seek to understand whether information about discrimination of an outgroup fosters stigma-based solidarity or competition.

Publications

• C. Lavest, M. Ferry, M. Ichou, P. Präg (2025) "Who do they think you are? Inconsistencies in self- and proxy-reports of education within families", Social Science Research, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103225.
• Landais, C., Bounie, D., Camara, Y., Fize, E., Galbraith, J., Lavest, C., Pazem, T., & Savatier, B. (2020). "Consumption dynamics in the COVID crisis: Real-time insights from French transaction & bank data." CEPR Discussion Paper, 15474. https://doi.org/10.3386/w27431
• Lavest, C., Landais, C., & Fize, E. (2021). "Consommation, épargne et fragilités financières pendant la crise Covid." CAE Focus, 54. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12533