He was previously and until 2021 a Professor of Economics of Sciences Po, where he was dean of the School of Public Affairs.

In 2015, Algan was appointed as dean of Sciences Po's School of Public Affairs.

Additionally, he has held visiting appointments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at Harvard University.

In parallel to his academic positions, he maintains affiliations with IZA and the CEPR, is a member of the Council of Economic Analysis and of the OECD High Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, and co-director of the Research Center on Labor Market Policy, a research center involving Sciences Po, CREST, DARES [fr], Pole Emploi, Unedic and Alpha.

For example, in The Society of Defiance ("La société de défiance"; with Cahuc) Algan documents how distrust between French citizens among each other as well as with regard to the market economy and government has been growing since the 1990s, eroding civic behaviour, and argues that this growing distrust is both due and in turn fuels French corporatism, wherein the government regulates large aspects of citizens' lives.