Under French welfare and tax legislation, real disposable household income for workers on the "Smic" minimum-wage rose faster than the real minimum-wage, for a given family configuration and number of hours worked, between 1999 and 2011, with disposable income rising by over 10% against a 5% rise in the minimum-wage. Various mechanisms introduced to support low-earners' incomes have played a decis... Lire la suite
The revealed comparative advantage (RCA) indicator estimated by CEPII (Centre d'Études Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales, a Paris-based economics institute) underscores the similar specializations of the five main European Union (EU) exporters (France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, and Spain). All five countries studied specialize in mechanical products and/or vehicles and-apart fro... Lire la suite
Reduced rate employers' social security contributions for low-wage workers, first introduced in 1993 and progressively extended since then, are a key component of employment policy in France. Their gross cost to public finances amounted €22.2 billion in 2009 (not including revenues from their positive impact on employment and the resulting lower spending on unemployment benefits). This paper summa... Lire la suite
The world economy is still convalescent. The 2008-2009 crisis grew out of deep imbalances in the advanced economies, and in particular out of excessive levels of household, corporate and/or government debt. Stimulus plans have mitigated the consequences of this crisis, but at the cost of rising public debt, even though the process of private debt reduction has barely begun. It will take time to cl... Lire la suite
By encouraging economies to specialize in sectors where they enjoy a comparative advantage, globalization has helped restrain price rises for many goods. In most of the OECD countries this effect has been relatively modest on the overall consumer price index (some 0 to ¼ of a percentage point annually since 2000) but it has proved to be far greater for goods widely traded in the international mark... Lire la suite
Unemployment is high among people with doctorates in France, both in relation to other graduate categories and by comparison with PhDs in other countries. The rate varies widely from one subject area to another, however. The unemployment rate for people with university doctorates in mechanical, electronic, computer engineering and engineering sciences is low, being close to that for engineering sc... Lire la suite
The current globalization, which began in the 1970s, is not unprecedented: between 1870 and 1914, the opening of national economies went hand in hand with a rapid expansion of trade and investment beyond national borders. The period also saw financial crises comparable to those of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.As for goods markets, the first globalization was characterized by... Lire la suite
The recent crisis has again drawn attention to the difficulties young people face in finding work. Unemployment for the 15-24 age group was 22.8% in first quarter of 2011 (versus 8.4% for 25-49 year-olds).This non-prescriptive study seeks to identify the difficulties young people face when entering the labour market by analysing available indicators and school-to-work pathways.The unemployment rat... Lire la suite
The economic crisis of 2008-2009 has increased pressure on the public finances of most developed countries, against a background of ageing populations, adding to doubts as to their sustainability.A country's public finances are considered to be sustainable when it is capable of funding its public debt over the very long term with no change of policy. Sustainability depends on both short and long-t... Lire la suite
French industry's capacity utilization rate has picked up progressively, after falling sharply during the crisis. Even so, in early 2011 it was still well below its long-term average. Yet despite this under-utilization of existing stock of capital, non-financial corporations resumed investing as early as the second quarter of 2010, and even as early as fourth-quarter 2009 for productive investment... Lire la suite