How do firms respond to cheaper computers? Microeconometric evidence for France based on a production function approach

The continuous innovation process experienced by the information technology industries over the last decades has caused the price of computer power to decrease dramatically. This has led many firms to invest massively in increasingly efficient computers. This paper is an attempt to assess the impact of the fall of the cost of this particular input, on the performances of firms in terms of marginal cost, aggregate labor demand and employment by skill. Unlike most studies dealing with the technological bias issue, most of which rely on the estimation of factor demand equations, our evaluation of the complementarities between computers, skilled and unskilled labor rests on the sole estimation of a production function. We define a set of parameters of interest, depending on the observations and on the structural parameters of the production function, enabling us to examine the impact of the computer price decrease on marginal cost, labor demand and the relative demand for skills. Using a panel of more than 5000 continuing French firms followed between 1994 and 1997, we estimate a translog production function and find that the effects of the decrease in the price of computers have been large, both in terms of marginal cost reduction and in terms of skill structure. A 15% fall of the computer price should lead to a decrease of around 0.7% in the marginal cost of production and to a rise of about 3.5% of the skilled to unskilled ratio, other input prices being held fixed.Computers, production function, marginal cost, factor demands, technological bias

Evaluation of payroll tax subsidies for low-wage workers

In this article, we study the impact of payroll tax subsidies for low-wage workers on various outcomes of the firms, including employment, in particular that of young and less skilled workers. We concentrate on the effects of the 1995 and 1996 tax cuts policies, which permit large decreases in employer-paid contributions compared with the 1993 original policy. To distinguish between firms that are more or less concerned by these reductions, we compute for each firm in 1994 the changes in total labor costs, which are solely due to the changes in the tax reductions between 1994 and 1997. This variable lies between 0 and 10%, depending on the proportion of low wage workers in the firm in 1994. This paper includes an important methodology part. It refers to the statistical framework of Rubin (1974, 1977, 1983) and Heckman, Ichimura and Todd (1997, 1998, 1999), appropriate for the evaluation of a unique treatment, like participation in a training program. For identifying the effects of the firms ex ante labor cost reduction, we adapt the formalism to the case where the economic policies involve an infinite number of possible treatments. We also propose an estimation method based on the implementation of nonparametric series estimators. The empirical analysis makes use of matched employer-employee information originating from two main sources of data, the Déclarations Annuelles de Données Sociales (DADS) and the Bénéfices réels normaux (BRN). We find that, between 1994 and 1997, tax reductions are associated with very strong employment and wages effects in the economy. We also find that they permit the creation or the save of roughly 400.000 works, even though this estimate is rather imprecise because of the methodology.Total labor costs, Tax subsidies, matched employer-employee data, selection bias, econometric evaluation methods, semiparametric estimation, series estimators, continuous treatment

Taxation, user cost of capital and factor demand

In this paper we analyze the impact on the demand of capital and labour of changes in their relative costs, using micro data. We especially highlight the role of the user cost of capital, for which we propose an original measure based on the cost of debt and the cost of equity. We hence take advantage of changes in the taxation of capital to build instrument variables and to estimate a complete system of factor demands. First we find that the elasticity of substitution between capital and labour is relatively weak in the non manufacturing sector, about 0,4, whereas this parameter range from 0.6 to 0,8 in the manufacturing sector. Secondly, we show that the price elasticity of the demand for goods is quite high, and is almost equal to 2 in both industries. Thirdly and probably the most interesting result, we find a significant and direct relationship between the user cost of capital and the stock of capital, which does not appear in most former studies on French data. In a standard model of factor demand, our results mean that the wealth effect dominates the substitution effect. As a result, lowering the user cost of capital would lead, at partial equilibrium, to increase not only investment but also the employment level and output.Taxation, user cost of capital, factor demand, firm data

Apparent returns on training in French firms: impacts on productivity and wages

We estimate the productivity- and wage-returns to firm-provided training in a panel of French Firms. We find positive and significant returns to training on productivity. For instance, an increase in training intensity by 150 Euros per worker increases a firms labor productivity by 0.4 %. Moreover, firms benefit from providing training to their workers, since they keep most of the gain from training. Indeed, the wage increase following training is less than half of the productivity increase. However, the study only measures apparent returns. Even if it tries to control short-run simultaneity biases, it does not separate between the direct effects of training and the effect of factors that generally accompany or motivate training in the medium and the long run, such as technological or organisational changes.On-the-job Training ; Productivity ; Wages

LONG LIFE FOR THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN MESOSCALE EDDIES

Abstract The three-dimensional structure of the eastern Mediterranean mesoscale eddies was studied using a combination of a high horizontal resolution numerical model (∼5 km) outputs, in-situ and satellite data. Most of these eddies show good similarity between model results and observations. The structure, formation, development and propagation of each feature were studied separately and the results were then compared. Westward propagation in the southern Ionian Sea and eastward propagation in the southern Levantine Basin were observed with lifetime of more than two years

Contextual effects of immigrant presence on populist radical right support: testing the ‘halo effect’ on Front National voting in France

This paper examines the relationship between immigration and populist radical right (PRR) support, based on an analysis of the contextual effects of immigrant presence on Front National vote in France in 2017. Using a unique set of survey data geolocalising respondents at the subcommunal level, it finds evidence for the existence of a curvilinear “halo effect,” with substantial increases in the probability of PRR vote in areas surrounding communities with significantly higher-than-average immigrant populations, and independent of other socio-economic context, as well as individual socio-demographic characteristics. Most importantly, a path analysis confirms the presence of individual attitudinal mediators of this halo effect on PRR vote, thus testing the foundation of the halo, namely that the contextual effects of immigrant presence act on attitudes which drive PRR support. These findings provide a significant step forward in understanding the mechanisms linking subjective experience of immigration with voting for the populist radical right

Acoustic and optical variations during rapid downward motion episodes in the deep north-western Mediterranean Sea

An Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) was moored at the deep-sea site of the ANTARES neutrino telescope near Toulon, France, thus providing a unique opportunity to compare high-resolution acoustic and optical observations between 70 and 170 m above the sea bed at 2475 m. The ADCP measured downward vertical currents of magnitudes up to 0.03 m s-1 in late winter and early spring 2006. In the same period, observations were made of enhanced levels of acoustic reflection, interpreted as suspended particles including zooplankton, by a factor of about 10 and of horizontal currents reaching 0.35 m s-1. These observations coincided with high light levels detected by the telescope, interpreted as increased bioluminescence. During winter 2006 deep dense-water formation occurred in the Ligurian subbasin, thus providing a possible explanation for these observations. However, the 10-20 days quasi-periodic episodes of high levels of acoustic reflection, light and large vertical currents continuing into the summer are not direct evidence of this process. It is hypothesized that the main process allowing for suspended material to be moved vertically later in the year is local advection, linked with topographic boundary current instabilities along the rim of the 'Northern Current'.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figure

Human Gamma Oscillations during Slow Wave Sleep

Neocortical local field potentials have shown that gamma oscillations occur spontaneously during slow-wave sleep (SWS). At the macroscopic EEG level in the human brain, no evidences were reported so far. In this study, by using simultaneous scalp and intracranial EEG recordings in 20 epileptic subjects, we examined gamma oscillations in cerebral cortex during SWS. We report that gamma oscillations in low (30–50 Hz) and high (60–120 Hz) frequency bands recurrently emerged in all investigated regions and their amplitudes coincided with specific phases of the cortical slow wave. In most of the cases, multiple oscillatory bursts in different frequency bands from 30 to 120 Hz were correlated with positive peaks of scalp slow waves (“IN-phase” pattern), confirming previous animal findings. In addition, we report another gamma pattern that appears preferentially during the negative phase of the slow wave (“ANTI-phase” pattern). This new pattern presented dominant peaks in the high gamma range and was preferentially expressed in the temporal cortex. Finally, we found that the spatial coherence between cortical sites exhibiting gamma activities was local and fell off quickly when computed between distant sites. Overall, these results provide the first human evidences that gamma oscillations can be observed in macroscopic EEG recordings during sleep. They support the concept that these high-frequency activities might be associated with phasic increases of neural activity during slow oscillations. Such patterned activity in the sleeping brain could play a role in off-line processing of cortical networks