Aspiring Top Civil Servants' Distrust in the Private Sector

In this paper, we assess the beliefs of aspiring top civil servants towards the private sector. We use a survey conducted in a French university known for training most of the future high-ranking civil servants and politicians, as well as students who will work in the private sector. Our results show that students aspiring to work in the public sector are more likely to distrust the private sector, to believe that conducting business is easy, and are less likely to see the benefits of public-private partnerships. They are also more likely to believe that private sector workers are self-interested. These results have strong implications for the level of regulation in France, and the cooperation between the public and private sector

Choosing ADR or Litigation

We model the decision by two contestants to select one of two conflict resolution forums in which to address their conflict; alternative dispute resolution (ADR) or litigation. Given a forum, we represent the parties’ behavior by a Tullock contest. Because of the additional constraints disputants face in courts, we assume that the cost structure of providing effective legal arguments is higher under litigation. Paradoxically, litigation may be procedurally more efficient in equilibrium. The final choice of the parties is based on their respective utility and we show that a tension may arise with procedural efficiency. Finally, we also show that the timing of the decision of the conflict resolution mechanism (before or after the conflict arises) affects the choices the parties make