Tresor-Economics

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Trésor-Economics No. 14 - Labor market adjustment dynamics and labor mobility within the euro area

Moving to a single currency has reduced trading costs, enhanced price transparency and increased financial stability. However, the euro area is sometimes subject to asymmetric shocks. In order to respond to these shocks, EMU Member States can rely on appropriate national policies, or other real dynamics adjustment mechanisms, such as real competitiveness adjustments or the mobility of production f... Lire la suite

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Trésor-Economics No. 13 - Examining the impact of Basel II on the supply of credit to SMEs

To safeguard against credit risk and prevent a systemic crisis, banks must comply with prudential regulations requiring them to hold a certain amount of capital for each loan granted. The Basel II Capital Accord has reformed the procedures for calculating regulatory capital - which now increases with borrower risk - as part of efforts to strengthen the stability of the international banking system... Lire la suite

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Trésor-Economics No. 12 - The Global Economic Outlook, spring 2007

The balance of global growth has shifted since summer 2006 in geographical terms. The United States has been experiencing a soft landing since the middle of last year, under the influence of the housing market downturn, which will probably continue to act as a drag on the economy for much of 2007. Eurozone growth (year-on-year) overtook the United States at the end of 2006, indicating a decoupling... Lire la suite

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Trésor-Economics No. 11 - How the new features of globalisation are affecting markets in Europe

Until the end of the 1990’s, the rapid growth of trade has had only a limited impact on Europe’s labour markets and inequalities, insofar as it mainly affected countries with comparable levels of development. The growing share of the major emerging countries in world trade could change this pattern, notably by pushing the European countries to specialise more: that is what the growth in the share... Lire la suite

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Trésor-Economics No. 10 - Distinguishing cyclical from structural components in French unemployment

The French unemployment rate fall to 8.6% at the end of 2006, its lowest level since 1983. For the year as a whole, unemployment has declined by around 1 percentage point: can we put this fall entirely down to a good economic situation, or does it also reflect structural improvements in the labour market?To answer this question we need to distinguish between cyclical and structural components in t... Lire la suite

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Trésor-Economics No. 9 - The patent system in Europe

Several reports published in recent years have highlighted the gap that has opened up between Europe (notably France) and the United States in terms of the number of patents filed. Taking the number of "triadic patents" (filed simultaneously in the United States, Japan and with the European Patent Office), the European Union (EU) filed 35 patents per million head of population versus 66 in the Uni... Lire la suite

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Trésor-Economics No. 8 - UK labour market performance

UK unemployment has fallen sharply since it peaked at slightly over 10% in 1993, dropping to 4.7% in mid-2005, its lowest level in 35 years. This fall in unemployment may be viewed as exemplary by comparison with the other large European economies. UK labour market performance stands out from that of the eurozone in a number of respects: the decline in unemployment has gone hand in hand with a hig... Lire la suite

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Trésor-Economics No. 7 - Firms’ access to bank credit

Firms may be denied access to bank loans even if they are willing to pay high interest. This phenomenon - known as "credit rationing" - remains hard to quantify, as credit supply and demand are not directly observable. However, some evidence suggests that credit rationing has been significant in France during the 1990s.A disequilibrium model estimated on French data for the recent period suggests... Lire la suite

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Trésor-Economics No. 6 - Reinterpreting the contribution of foreign trade to growth

The impact of foreign trade on economic activity is usually analyzed by computing the "contribution of foreign to growth". Such an analysis carried on for France emphasises that over the three years from 2003 to 2005, the contribution of foreign trade to growth has been sharply negative.However, the contribution of foreign trade to growth seems too crude an indicator to yield proper insight into t... Lire la suite

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Trésor-Economics No. 5 - Is the impact of China’s emergence on France as large as currently thought ?

The opening up of the French economy since 1960 has facilitated an enlargment of the range of disposable products and a downward pressure on prices. These developments have benefited consumers and have translated into a larger exposure of French firms to foreign competition. These pressures globalisation has brought to bear on companies, come from both the evolution of competitiveness and from Fra... Lire la suite