Rafael Lalive

Rafael Lalive is a Professor at the University of Lausanne's Faculty of Business and Economics and a core member of the LIVES Centre, a Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research. Based at the Internef Building in Lausanne, he leads interdisciplinary research on labor market dynamics and social policy evaluation.

His research spans Labor Economics, Gender Economics, and Public Policy, with specialized focus on job search behavior, unemployment insurance systems, gender diversity in workplaces, and family policy impacts. He employs causal inference methods using natural experiments like the Swiss language border to isolate cultural effects on economic decisions, and analyzes policy interventions through quasi-experimental designs.

Recent publications reveal strong trends in gender economics (examining vacancy preferences and workplace diversity) and family economics (assessing maternity leave mandates and fertility outcomes). His work increasingly integrates crisis response analysis, including pandemic effects on youth mental health and consumption patterns, while maintaining methodological rigor through randomized trials and large-scale data.

As part of the LIVES Centre's leadership team, Professor Lalive coordinates a multidisciplinary network studying life course inequalities, collaborating with researchers across the University of Lausanne and University of Geneva to translate empirical findings into evidence-based social policies.