The recent rise in oil prices has brought concern about its eventual impact on economic growth. However, empirical studies seem to be reassuring. Actually, the link between oil prices and GDP growth estimated since the mid 80s is not as strong as it was before the mid 80s. Several explanations...

In 2004, 41 Zones Franches Urbaines (ZFU) have replaced less generous Zones de Redynamisation Urbaine (ZRU). ZFUs are particularly generous Enterprise Zones schemes in which establishments are exempted from all taxes and social contributions for 5 years. A first wave of ZFUs was zoned in 1997,...

The household National Account published by the national statistical office presents a picture of the income, consumption and savings of households. It gives a measure of purchasing power within a consistent and integrated framework, which allows comparisons between countries. It is designed at...

The main objective of this paper is to question the interpretation of the usually-found positive correlation between firm-specific pay inequalities and productivity. We estimate from French employer-employee matched data this correlation and confirm that it is positive, even after accounting for...

Publication by INSEE of very long time series of national accounts makes it possible to have a look on the distribution of value-added and its evolution in France for nearly sixty years. Apart from updating the conclusions, this article studies to which extent conceptual and methodological...

In this paper, we apply the surplus accounting methodology to analyze the distribution of the fruits of growth between production factors over the period 1950-2008. Three production factors are distinguished: paid employment, self-employment and capital. The surplus distributed to capital is nil...

While a new retirement pension reform is currently discussed in France, it is crucial to evaluate previous reforms. Up to now, no evaluation of the 2003 reform is available, particularly for civil servants. This article deals with the impact of this reform on the retirement behaviour of public...

Most studies about the geographical location of a phenomenon or a population first aggregate data according to administrative boundaries which are generally not related to the issue. When the population under study is rare, and when the sample is not exhaustive, these aggregation choices often...

Historical changes in the typical life-cycle do not conform to a simple model of equal-sharing in which additional years of life are equally distributed between time devoted to training, work and leisure. We have instead observed a quasi-general decline in the share of our life-cycles that is...

Geographical concentration of some industries over time is hard to explain without assuming the existence of agglomeration economies. The increasing availability of accurate individual firm data has renewed interest in the quantitative evaluation of the extent of these economies. Using three...