Edition —
Algorithm, HTML canvas · 2026 · After Vera Molnár
Concentric squares whose disorder grows with distance from the centre, the way trade falls with distance in a gravity equation. Drawn once for you on arrival. No two visits see the same print.
Around the economist, the pioneers’ forms drawing his own subjects: borders, passports, treaties, sea lanes, migrations, distance.
I am a researcher at the French Institute for Economics (IFE), a Sciences Po research center in Paris.
I study how distance in all its forms, treaties, visas, sea lanes, politics, shapes trade, migration and development. Ph.D. from Sciences Po; past stops at Princeton, Yale, the LSE and the OECD.
Published papers and working papers, each with a print drawn from its own subject and a label that says how. The catalogue has every abstract and citation.
with Thierry Mayer and Hillel Rapoport
Journal of Economic Geography · Volume 25, Issue 1, January 2025, pages 93–126
Thirty economies on a ring and a chord for every trade agreement between two of them, in red where the agreement eases the movement of business people. Drawn from the 450 agreements read by FtaCoder.
Journal of Development Economics · Volume 140, September 2019, pages 106–126
Thirty economies: each row a passport, each column a destination. A stroke where the traveller crosses without a visa, a short one for a visa on arrival, a gap where a visa stands in the way. Schengen passports in red. Drawn from the Passport Index.
Economics and Politics · Volume 25, Issue 3, November 2013, pages 283–312
Each square a trading partner, turned away by its political distance and fading with it; the partners that stay aligned are in red. Illustrative.
with Jules Hugot
CEPII Working Paper · N°2017-24, December 2017
Rotterdam → Yokohama twice, to scale: through Suez in black, over the melting Arctic in red. The routes computed for the paper.
CEPII Working Paper · N°2017-02, February 2017
New York → San Francisco twice, to scale: round Cape Horn in black, through the Panama Canal in red, the shortcut that re-drew Canada's domestic trade costs.
with Jules Hugot
CEPII Working Paper · N°2016-29, December 2016
London → Mumbai twice, to scale: round the Cape of Good Hope in black, through Suez in red. The difference is the distance the paper measures trade against.
PressBFM Business
Work for the OECD, letters and columns from CEPII, and analysis for the Colombian planning department.
with Hillel Rapoport
La Lettre du CEPII · N°454, April 2025
The same web of agreements: in red, the ones that let business travellers through. Those are the chords along which trade grew by fifteen per cent.
OECD Digital Economy Papers · No. 362
A noisy daily search signal in black and the growth line nowcast through it in red, the way the model reads the ICT sector before the statistics arrive.
with Jules Hugot
La Lettre du CEPII · N°392, octobre 2018
Rotterdam → Yokohama: the polar shortcut in red against the Suez route in black. Shorter, but not by enough to move the geography of trade.
CEPII Blog · 27 June 2017
Towns as dots, roads as lines; in red, dashed, the links not yet built. Illustrative.
with Francesco Molteni
La Lettre du CEPII · N°368, août 2016
Capital flowing as lines from left to right; a sudden stop is where they break off together, marked in red. Illustrative.
with Christopher Findlay and Silvia Sorescu
CEPII Working Paper · N°2016-23, September 2016
A sovereign risk premium that steps down at each reform, marked in red: markets price a reform the day it is announced. Illustrative.
PressObserwator Finansowy
Archivos de Economía, Departamento Nacional de Planeación · Documento 379, 2 de septiembre de 2011
The gravity equation behind the model: trade falls with distance, the way order does here.
Slides and exercise booklets from courses on international trade and gravity equations. Free to take; please leave the originals on the wall.
L'ENA / INSP
The gravity equation the course is built on, drawn as order falling away with distance.
Interactive slides — password-protected (shared with enrolled students).
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
The gravity equation the course is built on, drawn as order falling away with distance.
MaterialsLesson #1Lesson #2Lesson #3Lesson #4Lesson #5Lesson #6Lesson #7Lesson #8Lesson #9Lesson #10TD Booklet
Galatasaray University
The gravity equation the course is built on, drawn as order falling away with distance.
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
The gravity equation the course is built on, drawn as order falling away with distance.
Materials available on request.
How to reach the economist, and where to find him when he is not here.
camilo.umanadajud@sciences-po.fr
French Institute for Economics (IFE)