Simulations of changes in the participation formula on firms paid amounts

Participation is a savings from salaries device which aims at sharing firms benefits with workers. To do so, firms have to pay to their employees an amount whose computation depends on fiscal benefits and is based on a legal formula. As this device should be reformed, the authority in charge of Participation suggested INSEE to examine the consequences of a change in the specification of this formula, mainly by replacing the fiscal benefit with the accounting benefit. Using firms social accounts, consistency between paid and estimated participation is examined. Simulation of a change in the formula is conducted for firms for which these amounts are consistent with each other. The change in the formula does not change very much the amount paid by firms which initially pay some participation. It however increases the number of firms who should pay some. Those firms increase the total participation amount by 1.4 billion ¬. However, these changes do not account for possible changes in firms behaviours.