Biography

Laura Pierret’s research is at the crossroads of political economy and EU studies. She works on the political power of economic ideas and the role of expertise in policymaking. Laura is particularly interested in the search of political actors for credibility and trustworthiness, and how these processes of legitimation affect macroeconomic policies.

She wrote a dissertation on the concept of moral hazard and its domination of the EU’s response to the Great Recession. Her research has been published in leading academic journals, such as Journal of European Public Policy or Journal of Common Market Studies.

As a Max Weber Fellow, Laura is developing her work on the social construction of moral hazard to include a longer historical period and a transatlantic comparative perspective. She will also start a new project on the variation over time of economic expertise as a source of political legitimacy.

Prior to joining the EUI, Laura was a doctoral researcher at the University of Luxembourg (2020-2024), an academic assistant at the College of Europe (Bruges, 2019-2020), an economist at the Embassy of the Argentine Republic (Brussels, 2018), and a junior analysist at France Stratégie (Paris, 2016-2017).

Laura holds a PhD in political science (University of Luxembourg), a MA in European political and governance studies (College of Europe), a MSc in economics (Paris-Dauphine University), and a double BSc in economics (Paris-Dauphine University and Autonomous University of Madrid).

Research projects, clusters and working groups

• Finance and society

Mentor

• Erik, Jones

Recent research output

• PIERRET, Laura (2025), Beyond the German obsession : moral hazard and power in European economic governance, Article