Economics PhD student at Paris School of Economics (PSE)
Below is a chronological overview of press articles that mention or discuss my research.
“Un pillage colossal : comment la domination coloniale a façonné les inégalités Nord-Sud” (Elucid, France, 14 December 2025)
« L’Europe a accumulé un surplus dans ses transactions avec le reste du monde atteignant jusqu’à 4 % de son PIB » ; « sans transferts coloniaux et avec des prix plus justes, l’Afrique subsaharienne et l’Amérique latine auraient pu converger vers les niveaux de vie européens ».
“Le « privilège exorbitant » des pays du Nord global renforce les inégalités mondiales” (Le Monde, France, 9 December 2025)
« Chaque année, un flux financier de 1 % du produit intérieur brut mondial part des pays pauvres vers les pays riches. »
“Thomas Piketty: ‘The left has been a victim of its own success’” (Financial Times, United Kingdom, 5 November 2025)
« I’ve done some research with Gastón Nievas showing that what we used to call the exorbitant privilege of the [US] dollar, in terms of differential between the rate of return on foreign assets and foreign liabilities with a dollar portfolio, has actually spread to become a rich world privilege, including for the Eurozone and but also for Japan and Britain to a lesser extent. In a way this was the purpose of creating the euro, to try to have some financial advantage comparable to the dollar. In some ways it worked, but the people who lose from that are to some extent the countries in the global south. »
“Poorer countries urged to mirror Opec in dealing with West” (AGBI, United Arab Emirates, 26 September 2025)
“The key takeaway is that power matters in global economic relations, that markets do not self-regulate and that some countries are consistently better off because they have more bargaining power.”
“World Inequality Lab Study by Piketty Traces Persisting North-South Divide to Colonial Servitude” (The AIDEM, India, 12 July 2025)
“Nievas and Piketty’s new study builds on previous research on this unequal relationship. They argue that two centuries of inequality between the North and South have been shaped by colonial extraction and unequal exchange. Self-correcting market mechanisms play only a limited role in global economic relations. Instead, they are characterized by persistent imbalances and power dynamics.”
“La extracción colonial y el intercambio desigual han marcado dos siglos de desigualdad Norte-Sur” (Revo Prosper, Spain, 3 July 2025)
“La globalización siempre ha creado ganadores y perdedores. En el siglo XIX, las potencias coloniales impusieron su dominio mediante la fuerza militar y la extracción… La segunda globalización neoliberal promovió la ilusión de mercados autocorrectivos, pero los resultados no fueron menos desiguales.”
“Gastón Nievas y la desigualdad Norte-Sur: « No hubiesen robado lo que robaron y sería una historia distinta »” (Tiempo Argentino, Argentina, 21 June 2025)
« Lo que hubiese cambiado el desarrollo es que se hubiesen pagado un quinto más… No hubiesen robado lo que robaron y sería una historia distinta. »
“Nievas et Piketty retracent deux siècles de financiarisation du monde” (Alternatives Economiques, France, 19 June 2025)
“Les économistes Gastón Nievas et Thomas Piketty ont constitué une base de données inédite sur la balance des paiements de 1880 à nos jours. Ils esquissent ainsi une histoire et une géographie mondiales du pouvoir économique.”
“Foreign transfers are now flowing mostly North to South via remittances — World Inequality Lab report” (Daily Maverick, South Africa, 17 June 2025)
“No country or world region has ever received foreign income inflows approaching the magnitude of Europe’s in the 19th century.”
“Today financial transfers mostly flow North to South via remittances.”
“Africa’s Debt Dilemma: Unpacking the Unfavourable Factors” (Banking & Finance in Africa, Africa, October 2024. Page 40) “In a recent study by Gastón Nievas and Alice Sodano, it is revealed that the wealthiest countries have assumed the role of global bankers, attracting excess savings by offering low-yield safe assets and redirecting these funds into more profitable ventures; this privilege results in significant income transfers from the poorest to the richest nations, amounting to 1% of GDP for the top 20% of countries and 2% for the top 10%, while it exacerbates current account imbalances for the bottom 80% by about 2–3% of their GDP.”
“BRICS transferem o equivalente a R$ 3,4 tri por ano para países ricos” (Revista Fórum, Brazil, 25 April 2024)
“Os países em desenvolvimento transferem aos países ricos entre 2 % e 3 % de seu PIB.”
“Os mercados não garantem espontaneamente uma troca justa.”
“BRICS group evolves as alternative economic model” (China Diplomacy, China, 23 October 2024)
“U.S. dollar dominance results in net income transfers of 1 % of GDP for the top 20 % of countries and 2 % for the top 10 %, while reducing the GDP of the bottom 80 % by 2–3 %.”
“Enabler rather than enforcer” (China Daily, China, 23 October 2024)
“Since the 1990s the richest 20 % of countries capture more than 90 % of total foreign wealth.”
“BRICS plans ‘multi-currency system’ to challenge US dollar dominance” (Geopolitical Economy, Canada, 19 October 2024)
“The richest countries have become the bankers of the world, attracting excess savings with low-yield safe assets and investing these inflows in more profitable ventures.”
“This imposes a burden of 2–3 % of GDP on the bottom 80 %.”
“Les pays pauvres financent les plus riches” (Alternatives Economiques, France, 10 May 2024)
“Gaston Nievas et Alice Sodano, doctorants à l’Ecole d’économie de Paris (PSE), y analysent pour la première fois les rendements des actifs financiers étrangers, publics et privés, à l’échelle mondiale (216 économies) sur longue période (les 52 dernières années).”
“The Guardian view on globalisation’s discontent: it’s not right for poor countries to fund the rich” (The Guardian, United Kingdom, 24 April 2024)
“The bottom four-fifths of humanity finance the richest fifth to the tune of $660bn a year.”
“Wealthy countries have become the world’s bankers, able to squeeze debtors.”
“La hipocresía occidental acaricia su momento de máximo esplendor” (elDiarioAR, Argentina, 2024)
“Los países ricos pretenden estar a favor de mercados justos y abiertos… pero en la práctica la forma en que se organizan y regulan los mercados financieros conduce a una enorme transferencia de ingresos del Sur global al Norte global.”
“El exorbitante privilegio de Estados Unidos se ha convertido en un privilegio del mundo rico.”