In 19th century France, the long working hours produced worse conditions for the working classes. In our perspective, and that is new, the labour market produced massive externalities which it could not control. In our view, and it is the purpose of this paper, the analysis of the process of...

This paper emphasises an underestimated hypothesis -health considerations- explaining the reduction of working time in the 19th century in France. The first part is devoted to the rising wage and the declining health. In the second part, we show that the deterioration of living conditions was a...

We use life satisfaction and Body Mass Index (BMI) information from three waves of the GSOEP to test for social interactions in BMI between spouses. Semi-parametric regressions show that partner’s BMI is, beyond a certain level, negatively correlated with own satisfaction. Own BMI is...

This paper provides unprecedented direct evidence from large-scale survey data on both the intensity (how much?) and direction (to whom?) of income comparisons. Income comparisons are considered to be at least somewhat important by three-quarters of Europeans. They are associated with both lower...

International migration is maybe the single most effective way to alleviate poverty at a global level. When a given host country allows more immigrants in, this creates costs and benefits for that particular country as well as a positive externality for all those (individuals and governments)...

The paper proposes a theoretical investigation of the impact of welfare on the growth regimes, inspired by new growth theory and recent advances in institutional analysis. It shows the complementarity of Welfare State with the Fordist growth pattern and discusses the reasons of the "Welfare...

Job quality may usefully be thought of as depending on both job values (how much workers care about different job outcomes) and the job outcomes themselves. Here both cross-section and panel data are used to examine changes in job quality in OECD countries over the 1990s. Despite rising wages...

This paper uses repeated cross-section data ISSP data from 1989, 1997 and 2005 to consider movements in job quality. It is first underlined that not having a job when you want one is a major source of low well-being. Second, job values have remained fairly stable over time, although workers seem...

Most European countries have set up a mandatory unfunded pension scheme, often called first pillar, financed through contributions levied on wages. Although this common characteristic is crucial, the systems significantly differ in many aspects. Most importantly they differ in the level of the...

Both academic and political debates over the minimum wage generally focus on the minimum wage rate. However, the minimum wage is a complex institution composed of a wide variety of parameters. In this note, I show that nominal rates provide a very crude picture of minimal compensation and of...