Contenu du sommaire

The effects of France's National Employment Pacts on unemployment, by Michel Gaspard and Daniel Frank. Faced with a growing rate of unemployment which affects the young more than any other age category. French public authorities in 1977 adopted and implemented a set of measures known as «pacte national pour l'emploi» (National Employment Pact). This article presents the results of a study the aim of which was a quantitative determination, with the help of a model, of the effects which these measures have had on the evolution of unemployment since 1977. The first and second parts of the articled) describe the methodology which was elaborated, and (2) set forth the results of the re-assessment, needed for this study, of a model that had already been used. The third part enumerates the conclusions drawn from the analysis made of this recent period by means of this model: the pacts, the chief components of which were on the job training periods in enterprises and periods of instruction made available to the young, resulted in a very short-term reduction of the unemployment rate in their launching phase, yet had no palpable short-medium term effect, since each reduction in the supply of training and instruction periods went hand-in-hand with an increase of the unemployment rate among the young.

The evolution of short-term capital movements between France and foreign countries (1967-1978), by Jean Mathis. The purpose of the article is to clarify the contents of short-term financial flows between France and foreign countries and to describe their evolution between 1967 and 1978 as well as the reasons therefor. The first part, of a methodological nature, emphasizes the key role of importers and exporters and explanes those behaviours which lead to such movements. A classification of the latter in three categories is needed for the analysis commercial credits are primarily a function of exports and imports whereas the capital movements of the banking sector as well as leads and lags fundamentally depend on foreign exchange expectations, but they are used under different circumstances. The former are used when foreign exchange control allows. Leads and lags seem to be preferred when cash available to entreprises is sufficient to anticipate a payment or to delay the collection of a debt. The second part of the article studies the evolution of the banking sector capital for which stock data are available. The article aims at assessing the role of the various factors and concludes in particular that foreign exchange control is efficient when it is sufficiently strict. An appendix sums up the major steps taken to regulate foreign exchange between 1967 and 1978.