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Inflation, distribution and unemployment in today's France It is widely assumed that prices are determined by costs; in fact, in contemporary French economy, the variations of prices are closely linked with those of uniuary labor costs, but this in itself does not prove the existence of a causal relationship. As for the labor costs, their variations are related to the rate of unemployment, which makes it interesting to analyze the link between the rate of inflation and the rate of unemployment. Finally, if the rate of inflation and the rate of increase of labor costs both depend upon the unemployment rate, there must exist a critical value of the latter for which the functional distribution of wages and profits is stable; when this value is not reached, the distribution changes.

Economies of scale in the households' cash balances Here is tested on a sample of french checking-deposits in 1966 the hypothesis of economies of scale in the households' cash balances. These economies of scale when compared to those expected frorn theoretical models (Allais, Baumol) turn out to be relatively small. It is suggested that this slight result is due to the fact that the volumes of the tansactions of the studied accounts differ more because of the average value ol the effective operations than because of the number of these operations.

Investments, capacity utilization and depreciation: optimal policies Investment allocation policies, capacity utilization rates and deprciation cules can be established on an optimum basis through the incorporation of « optimum control theory » equations info a dynamic corporate model. Depreciation patterns are established on the basis of purely economical considerations. One of the studying hypotheses in developing the model was that firms do not operate in a perfect competition environnent of at full capacity. Application of this model to the same situations envisagea by Jorgenson and by the developers of the neo-classical theory leads to the same results obtained by these economists when maximizing the present value of profits. Thus, this model allows extending the use of this planning tool to a arger number of real-life situations.

About 1nterest rates in France In this paper, the authors study the term structure of intetest rates in France and show that F. Modigliani and R. Sutch's theory of preferred habitat fit s well French data. On the other hand, the long rate on bonds is well explained by current and past rates of growth of industrial output and of prices. Finally, it is shown that, in the long run, inflation leads to a substantial decrease of the real long rate. Datas used are quarterly figures covering 1960 I -1971 IV.

The optimal policy mix in a fixed and flexible exchange rate system under the constraint of financing monetary and public expenditure policies This article analyses the effects of financing of public expenditure and of the issue of money on certain characteristic variables of economic activity: real national production and the balance of payments; it then goes on to study the influence of State irnposed budget restraints on the adequacy of economic policies for these targets. In this second point the article explains the consequences of taking info account these budget restraints on the ptoblem of assignement of monetary and public expenditure policies to respectively external and internal targets (balance of payments and real national production); this applies whatever exchange rate system is operating.