Contenu du sommaire : Études du marché du travail

II. Politiques d'emploi

• Présentation générale - Pierre Morin, Louis-André Gérard-Varet, Pierre Cahuc p. 1-4
• L'impact des dispositifs d'emploi sur le devenir des jeunes chômeurs : une évaluation économétrique sur données longitudinales - Anne Sérandon, Denis Fougère, Liliane Bonnal p. 1-28
  The Impact of Employment Devices on the Future of Young Unemployed Individuals: An Econometric. Evaluation Based On Longitudinal Data, by Liliane Donnal, Denis Fougère and Anne Sérandon. This article concerns the evaluation of certain government employment policies introduced in France during the 1980s to reduce unemployment and improve the employability of young, unskilled workers. The evaluation made here is limited to the impact of such measures on the short-term future of the beneficiaries. The econometric study is based on individual longitudinal data collected by INSEE from 1986 to 1988. It focuses on the effects of the employment devices on the probability of finding a job (again) and the probability of returning to unemployment after a period of employment.
• Le temps de travail : un concept de plus en plus complexe - Yves Guégano p. 29-42
  The Working Week : An Increasingly Complex Concept, by Yves Guégano. The standard French 39-hour working week has been challenged by the development of part-time work and now gives a poor account of the many aspects of the number of hours worked, which is assessed differently according to whether it is observed over the week, the year or the life cycle. In France, as in Europe, the working week varies according to sex, the salaried or non-salaried nature of the work, and the activity sector. Ageneral study of the number of hours worked appears even less appropriate today when it is considered that hours are less and less regular and more and more diversified and that various forms of work sharing are on the rise.
• La retraite dans les modèles d'offre de travail : un survol de la littérature - Catherine Cazals p. 43-62
  Retirement in Labour-Supply Models: A Survey of the Literature, by Catherine Cazals. It has become particularly important to understand the labour-supply behaviour of individuals at the end of their working lives. Many countries have undertaken reforms to change the various retirement ages (minimum, legal and/or mandatory age) due to the problems encountered by the social security systems covering old age or in connection with employment policies. This article consists of a survey of the diverse models envisaged to attempt to understand the labour-supply behaviour of individuals nearing retirement. In particular, it distinguishes between the traditional life-cycle models and the relatively recent stochastic, dynamic discreet-choice models.
• La réduction du temps de travail dans les modèles de chômage d'équilibre : une revue de la littérature - Giacomo Corneo p. 63-73
  The Reduction in Working Time in Equilibrium Unemployment Models: A Review of the Literature, by Giacomo Corneo. This article presents a review of the literature exploring the consequences of a reduction in working time within the framework of equilibrium unemployment models. First of all, a study is made of the impact of a reduction in legal working hours on the demand for work at a constant hourly wage. Hourly wage trends are determined using the wage negotiation models and the efficiency wage models. The equilibrium unemployment models generally result in highly pessimistic conclusions as regards the possibility of reducing unemployment by shortening the working week. Nevertheless, various counter-examples are put forward to highlight the fragility of some of the results obtained.
• Allocation du capital et chômage technologique d'exclusion - Didier Blanchet p. 75-84
  Allocation of Capital and Technological Exclusion Unemployment, by Didier Blanchet. This article examines a possible effect of technological changes on employment. If skills in new technologies are unevenly distributed across the population and if there is competition for the use of a rare capital, then the employment of the least-productive workers implies an opportunity cost that might be higher than their apparent production. This leads to their rejection from the labour market. This result holds true in both a context of centralized optimization and a context of competitive equilibrium. In the latter case, it corresponds to an involuntary unemployment phenomenon, which wage flexibility cannot prevent. The article then takes a brief look at applying the model to various issues: age-based exclusion from the labour market, work sharing, compensating redistributive policies, and the openings offered by alternative low-capital jobs.
• Transferts fiscaux, répartition du revenu et équilibre des emplois de service - Didier Blanchet p. 85-91
  Tax Transfers, Income Distribution and Service- Job Equilibrium, by Didier Blanchet. This article proposes a model describing the equilibrium of vicinity jobs and its connection with the transfer system. A disintegrated macroeconomic model describes the interaction between the supply of and demand for these services: a model of supply-side sectorial allocation explained by individual productivity differences in the leading sector, and demand-side domestic work/market work decisions. The article presents the architecture of such a model along with a few simple analytical results.
• Le coin salarial en France depuis 1970 - Nicolas Sobczak, Renaud Méary, Yannick L'Horty p. 93-106
  The Wage Wedge in France Since 1970, by Yannick L'Horty, Renaud Méary and Nicolas Sobczak. The wage wedge represents the deviation between the real cost of labour borne by the employer and the purchasing power of the wage net of all contributions. It depends on the weight of tax and social security contributions as well as on the terms of trade, which relate the consumer prices to which employees are sensitive to the producer prices heeded by employers. The wage wedge thus measured has increased sharply in France since the early 1970s. In 1970, the cost of labour represented approximately 1.9 times the wage net of all contributions. By 1993, this value had risen to 2.3. The increase is due essentially to the rise in social contributions. Although the growth of the wage wedge could help to explain the rise in unemployment, the development of its progressiveness would seem to have had a more ambiguous effect.
• Ajustement des cotisations sociales et chômage d'équilibre - Giacomo Corneo p. 107-116
  The Adjustment of Social Security Contributions and Equilibrium Unemployment, by Giacomo Corneo. This article develops a theoretical analysis of the effects of employer and employee social security contributions in a model bearing the specific factors of an economy with collective wage bargaining and an economy with efficiency wages. A study is made of the adjustments that affect both the average and marginal contribution rates simultaneously. The main conclusion is that an increase in the degree of progressiveness of contributions can be favourable to employment. The logic of this measure is comparable to that of an income policy that tends to weaken the mechanisms driving up wages by taxing wage rises.
• Salaire d'efficience et politique de l'emploi. Une étude de quelques propositions - Yves Zenou p. 117-124
  Efficiency Wages and Employment Policy. A Study of Some Proposals, by Yves Zenou. A model of efficiency wages with monopolistic competition on the product market is used to study employment policy proposals: a system of employment subsidies funded by a tax on wages, a marginal employment subsidy funded by an intramarginal tax, and a flat-rate employment subsidy funded by a tax on wage increases. It is shown that these policies reduce the rate of equilibrium unemployment.
• Les conflits d'intérêt entre travailleurs qualifiés et travailleurs non qualifiés - Philippe Michel, Pierre Granier p. 125-139
  Clashes of Interest Between Skilled Workers and Unskilled Workers, by Pierre Granier and Philippe Michel. This articles uses a highly simplified model to prove the existence of a clash of interest capable of bringing skilled workers into conflict with those lacking in qualifications. To be more precise, it suggests that skilled workers can benefit from labour market imperfections to gain a situation rent generating unemployment among unskilled workers. A linear tax and subsidy system could increase employment without eliminating this situation rent.