Tresor-Economics - Trésor Info | Direction générale du Trésor

Trésor-Eco

Trésor-Economics No. 58 - Survey of household confidence and French consumer spending

Rédigé par : DG Trésor 29 mai 2009

Insee's monthly consumer confidence survey allows us to model households' behaviour with regard to their consumption of goods and services. However, this model is weaker when the cycle goes into reverse.The monthly consumer confidence survey administers eleven questions to ascertain households' perceptions of their economic environment. Replies are synthesised in the indicator of consumer confiden... Lire la suite

Trésor-Eco

Trésor-Economics No. 57 - Foreclosures in the United States and financial institutions' losses

Rédigé par : DG Trésor 20 mai 2009

The rate of mortgage defaults by American households began rising rapidly in summer 2006, precipitating first the property crisis, and then the financial crisis starting in summer 2007. The number of foreclosures has gone on rising since that time, one effect of which has been to depress house prices. Uncertainty over the total number of future foreclosures, meanwhile, is preventing financial inst... Lire la suite

Trésor-Eco

Trésor-Economics No. 56 - Unconventional monetary policies, an appraisal

Rédigé par : DG Trésor 17 avril 2009

The major Central Banks have cut their key rates sharply in recent months in response to the rapid slowdown in the economy. These conventional monetary policies have shown their limitations, however. In the first place, central banks have little room for manoeuvre: target rates are now between 0 and 0.25% for the Fed, 1.25% for the ECB, and 0.5% for the Bank of England (BoE). Second, despite previ... Lire la suite

Trésor-Eco

Trésor-Economics No. 55 - Global economic outlook, Spring 2009

Rédigé par : DG Trésor 03 avril 2009

In the fall of 2008, the financial crisis expanded, leading to a sharp contraction of activity by year's end. In countries where growth was largely debt-based, and whose populations are very sensitive to the wealth effect (US, UK and Spain), a steep fall in financial asset prices and tougher financing conditions resulted in a sharp drop in domestic demand. For export-oriented countries (such as Ge... Lire la suite

Trésor-Eco

Trésor-Economics No. 54 - The many faces of the French export setup

Rédigé par : DG Trésor 27 mars 2009

According to French Customs, some 100,000 French firms export goods, or nearly one firm in 20, This propensity to export is well below that of Germany, close to that observed in Italy, and greater than the figure for the United Kingdom and Spain.A very small number of firms account for the bulk of these exports, with the top thousand exporters representing 70% of total export revenues. While indep... Lire la suite

Trésor-Eco

Trésor-Economics No. 53 - Agri-food industry margins in France

Rédigé par : DG Trésor 13 mars 2009

The price of agricultural commodities rose sharply between 2007 and mid-2008. The downstream impact of this increase on food prices paid by consumers depends on relations between suppliers and supermarket chains, and on their relative bargaining power. In theory, this is determined primarily by the respective degrees of concentration among suppliers and supermarket chains, together with other fact... Lire la suite

Trésor-Eco

Trésor-Economics No. 52 - The Credit Default Swap (CDS) market

Rédigé par : DG Trésor 27 février 2009

One of the earliest signs of the financial crisis in summer 2007 was the plunge in the indices compiled from credit default swaps (CDSs) on a basket of subprime-backed bonds. Recently, the worsening situation in the emerging countries has been perceptible in the steep rise of CDS spreads on their sovereign bonds.Credit default swaps protect investors against credit events on reference corporate or... Lire la suite

Trésor-Eco

Trésor-Economics No. 51 - Competition and productivity gains: a sectoral analysis in the OECD countries

Rédigé par : DG Trésor 20 février 2009

Competition in the markets for goods and services is frequently cited as a contributor to economic growth. That is because greater competition in a given sector is thought to boost activity and jobs by lowering the sale price of goods and raising that sector's productivity, particularly through innovation.From a theoretical standpoint, however, the impact of competition on productivity is less cer... Lire la suite

Trésor-Eco

Trésor-Economics No. 50 - The economic impact of the 2008 research tax credit reform (Crédit d'Impôt Recherche)

Rédigé par : DG Trésor 21 janvier 2009

In so-called knowledge-based economies, both research and development (R&D) and innovation are essential to growth and competitiveness. In this respect, France does not appear to be investing enough in R&D activity. With R&D spending at 2.1% of GDP, France ranks in the middle of the league table, above the European average but well below Germany, the Scandinavian countries, the United States and J... Lire la suite

Trésor-Eco

Trésor-Economics No. 49 - The effects of globalisation on the supply of factors of production

Rédigé par : DG Trésor 19 décembre 2008

The emergence of new economic giants like India and China combined with very rapid growth in trade have profoundly altered the supply of factors of production on a global level. The supply of labour weighted by the share of exports in global GDP has more than doubled since 1980, as has the stock of capital.Despite efforts to raise educational standards, low skilled workers continue to dominate glo... Lire la suite