Contenu du sommaire : Varia

Nobel prize 2010 : markets with frictions 50 years after George J. Stigler's seminal contributions on price and wage dispersion produced by the lack of available information, the 2010 Nobel Prize in memory of Alfred Nobel rewards three pioneers of the search and matching literature. In this article, rather than writing a new survey of the large number of contributions in this active field, we discuss some of its micro-foundations to show that they have a clear and compelling character ; then we evoke the debates on the ability of the canonical macroeconomic model DMP (Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides) to replicate stylized facts of the business cycle. We then show that unlike competitive models, the value of this model class is to generate non-trivial policy recommendations. Finally we discuss four tracks for future research : directed research ; strategic wage bargaining within firms ; on-the-job search ; and finally, interactions with other market frictions, including financial and product markets.

Why reform preschool daycare in France ? A comparison with other OECD countries France is often cited as an example by its OECD partners for the success of its family policy. The main markers of this success are a high fertility rate combined with an above-average female employment rate and a relatively low proportion of children in poverty. This situation is due, in part, to France's generous system of cash benefits, tax breaks and preschool childcare provision. But, childcare capacity in France is not sufficient to absorb increased demand resulting from the rising birth numbers in recent years and the falling nursery school enrolment rates of the under-threes. In addition, the three-year benefit entitlement granted to mothers of two or more children who leave the labour force is one of the reasons why the employment rate of mothers of three children in France is below the OECD average. This article discusses the potential advantages of expanding preschool childcare provision and combining it with a system of parental leave that is shorter but more generous in financial terms than at present, the aim being to enhance the work-life balance, improve gender equality and keep families out of poverty. We estimate that the “cost” of expanding childcare provision to cover all the children concerned represents around 0.5 % of GDP, an amount which is of the same order of magnitude as the additional wealth created by an increase in female labour force participation.

The notion of addiction in economics and its challenge to the theory of rational choice This article analyzes the economic literature of the last forty years in the field of addiction and studies its relation to the theory of rational choice. It emphasizes the structuring role of the theory of rational addiction developed by Becker and Murphy [1988]. This theory constitutes both a technical achievement thanks to the formalization of the essential features of addiction using a framework with endogenous preferences complying with the hypotheses of the theory of rational choice and a revolution in the way to perceive addiction, which is no more an unwanted behavior, but the outcome of a cost-benefit calculus in the long run. Evidence of its empirical validation however tends to be weak. This emphasizes the limitations of a purely logical approach to addiction. Interdisciplinary collaborations with psychology and neurobiology are at the heart of recent initiatives for a better understanding of these behaviors.

We provide a new price-quantity mechanism to implement the Lindahl allocations as Nash equilibria. We show that it satisfies the property of forthrightness, introduced by Saijo et al. [1996]. Thus, at a Nash equilibrium, each player reports directly and honestly his personal price and his demand for the public good and obtains the corresponding commodity bundle. Using the gradient process to formalize the behaviour of the players out-of-equilibrium, we show that, in quasi-linear economies, the Nash equilibrium of the game is globally stable.

Geographical Location of Firms and the Environment : between imposed Constraint and incited Responsibility This article explores the links between environment, globalization and geographical location of firms. We develop a model in monopolistic competition, with capital mobility, in which are integrated consumers' ecological sensitivities (from regionally restricted to global) and firms' technological choice (standard or clean technology). In this context, we show that public policies (carbon tax or regulation) as well as an increasing environmental consciousness have a major impact on the adoption of a clean technology, on the relocation of the polluting activities and in fine on the environmental quality, considered here like global public good.