About me

I am an FWO postdoctoral fellow and lecturer in labour economics at Ghent University, where I study how labour markets treat people. My research centres on the determinants of and solutions to labour market discrimination, an issue that continues to squander individual talent in today’s labour market.

In my current postdoctoral project, I examine how labour market discrimination is tied to the business cycle and market competition. I work mainly with correspondence and audit field experiments and with meta-analysis, applying advanced meta-analytic techniques to (cross-)national panel data. I also developed the meta-analytic event study approach, a method for estimating dynamic treatment effects that corrects for publication selection bias at the same time. The same empirical lens carries into my related interests, which include unemployment and inactivity, alternative work arrangements, and the growing role of generative AI in the labour market.

My background is multidisciplinary. I hold a joint PhD in economics and sociology from Ghent University and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, a master’s degree in industrial and organisational psychology from Ghent University, and a business degree in management from Vlerick Business School. Between studies, I worked in consulting on data governance and analytics projects.

I am affiliated with UGent@Work and IZA@LISER. I also serve as an external member of the ethics board of the Flemish Public Employment Service (VDAB), providing independent advice on the ethical and responsible use of AI and automated decision-making. Across these roles I aim to translate rigorous research into evidence-based insights for professionals, business leaders, and policymakers, and I speak and comment regularly on these topics for academic and public audiences.

You can reach me at louis.lippens@ugent.be.

This page was last updated on 05 June 2026.