Economists have paid very little attention to the role of working conditions in sickness absence. Yet, bad working conditions are a potential determinant of labour supply, either directly or through their impact on health. This study tries to shed some light on this issue. To begin with, we...

In spite of prevalent views among economists and business management experts in favour of corporate focus development strategies still lack empirical evidence. The concepts of diversification and product refocusing of firms businesses are difficult to express with quantitative indicators, as the...

As schumpeterian creative destruction is increasingly popular, this leads to focus on high-growth firms. These firms have been called gazelles by Birch. Among the SME employing 20 to 250 workers in 1993 and still alive in 2003, the top 5% of the distribution of growth - henceforth called...

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...