A comparison of structural productivity levels in the major industrialised countries

Hourly labour productivity levels in a number of European countries are thought to be very close to, or possibly even higher than the level ‘observed’ in the United States. At the same time, however, there are big differentials between hours worked and/or employment rates in these countries and in the United States. Frequent mention is also made of the theory of diminishing returns to hours worked and the employment rate. The object of the analysis proposed here is to adjust the ‘observed’ levels of hourly productivity for the effect of the differentials (with the United States) in the hours worked and/or employment rates of several categories of the population of working age in order to calculate ‘structural’ hourly productivity. The results obtained confirm the diminishing returns to hours worked and the employment rate (especially where young and elderly people are concerned). The level of ‘structural’ hourly productivity appears to be highest in the United States, suggesting that the differential between per capita GDP in the European countries and in the United States is attributable to hours worked and employment rates being at lower levels, and also to lower ‘structural’ hourly productivity.Productivity; Employment rates; Working time; ICTs; Well-being

The rocky ride of break-even inflation rates

The correlation matrix between break-even inflation rate movements and real interest rate movements across several countries shows puzzling features. Correlation is significantly positive for nearly all cross-border pairs whereas it is nil, positive or negative unsystematically within countries. By means of a correlation matrix decomposition, we give an explanation for this puzzle.Inflation-linked bonds

Capital Utilisation and Retirement

This empirical analysis aims at assessing the effect of the economic climate and the intensity of capital utilisation on companies' capital retirement behaviour. It is conducted using individual company data, as well as original data on the degree of utilisation of production factors. The sample includes 6,998 observations over the period 1996-2008. This database is, to our knowledge, unique for the empirical analysis of the intensity of capital utilisation on firms' capital retirement behaviour. We adjust for endogeneity biases by means of instrumental variables. The main results obtained from the estimation of capital retirement models may be summarised as follows: i) The retirement rate decreases with the variations in cyclical pressures measured by the changes in output and the workweek of capital; this relation corresponds to a countercyclical decelerator effect on capital retirement; ii) The capital retirement rate increases with the structural intensity of capital utilisation; this effect, which corresponds to a wear and tear one, is nevertheless small compared to the decelerator one; iii) The profit rate does not have a significant impact on the retirement rate. Compared with the existing literature, here mainly Mairesse and Dormont (1985), the contribution of these results is to show, through the use of unique survey data, that the effect of the intensity of capital utilisation on capital retirement is structurally positive, via a wear and tear effect, and cyclically negative, via a decelerator effect which completes that already taken into account via the effect of changes in value added.Capital; Capital measure; Capital retirement; Capital utilisation

Faut-il changer les règles de revalorisation automatique du SMIC ?

Depuis 1970, le SMIC est revalorisé automatiquement en fonction de l'inflation et de la croissance du pouvoir d'achat ouvrier mesuré par le SHBO (Salaire Horaire de Base Ouvrier). Le gouvernement peut en outre revaloriser le SMIC par un « coup de pouce » discrétionnaire qui s'ajoute à la revalorisation automatique. Depuis 2009, un comité d'experts indépendants donne une recommandation sur ce coup de pouce, dont le gouvernement peut s'écarter en justifiant son choix. En 2012, de nouvelles règles de revalorisation automatique basées notamment sur la croissance du PIB sont discutées. Cette note de synthèse souligne les écueils de certains aspects d'une telle réforme, compte tenu des données disponibles et de leurs limitations, et fait quatre propositions relatives aux indicateurs de revalorisation et aux modalités d'application des règles

Le contrat unique:Une auberge espagnole

Le débat sur le contrat unique découle le plus souvent du constat d’une dualité du marché du travail, avec d’un côté des salariés qui seraient très protégés, les CDI et tout particulièrement les fonctionnaires, et de l’autre côté les actifs alternant emplois précaires peu protégés et périodes de chômage. Ce contraste traduit des inégalités flagrantes, avec des conséquences sociales et économiques importantes. En réponse à cette dualité, des propositions sont souvent avancées qui consisteraient à créer un « contrat unique » atténuant les écarts de statut et de droits entre emplois précaires (CDD et intérim) et emplois en CDI. Mais ce concept de « contrat unique » est souvent peu défini. C’est même une auberge espagnole si l’on prend en considération les différences importantes de contenu constatées dans les propos des uns ou des autres ! Les trois objectifs déclarés de la proposition de contrat unique sont : (i) de réduire les inégalités de statuts liées à la coexistence de contrats dits précaires (CDD et intérim) et de CDI ; (ii) de réduire la complexité et les incertitudes coûteuses de la judiciarisation des licenciements ; (iii) d’internaliser en partie le coût social des licenciements. Notre analyse montre qu’un contrat unique ne peut pas répondre véritablement à ces objectifs, mieux servis par d’autres voies, et qu’il présenterait des risques juridiques majeurs

Production factor returns : the role of factor utilisation

Short-term increasing returns to production factors are usually found in empirical studies. We argue they can be due to omitted variables, particularly the intensity of factor utilisation. Thanks to original French firm-level data (1992-2008), we show how increasing returns to scale disappear when working time, capacity utilisation rate and mainly capital operating time are introduced in the production functionProduction function, productivity, factor returns.

Employment and productivity: disentangling employment structure and qualification effects

This paper studies the effect of changes in the employment rate on labour productivity per hour, taking an empirical approach. By splitting the workforce into three qualification categories, this study allows us to distinguish the effects of changes in the employment rate structure from those of changes in the qualification structure. With the results obtained, we are then able to emphasise the mechanical effect on GDP, for each country in our panel, of a catch-up with the best practice with respect to employment rate structure and qualification level. It appears that the two effects are more or less of the same magnitude. Moreover, this methodology allows us to rank the countries in our panel depending on the gains they could expect from adopting the best practices in each of the two areas

News from the Frontier: Increased Productivity Dispersion across Firms and Factor Reallocation

Analysing French firms over 1991-2016, we find first that since the beginning of the century, one or two downward significant productivity breaks have occurred in all industries, both at the frontier and for laggard firms, suggesting a decline in the contribution of technological progress to productivity growth. Second, the median labour share is always higher for the laggard firms, with no clear trend, than for the frontier firms, with a sharp decrease from the mid-1990s to 2008, and an increase from 2008 onwards. Third, factor reallocation decreased significantly in the 2000s, at the time when we observed an increase in productivity dispersion, with a growing productivity gap between frontier and laggard firms. It appears also that reallocation has been lower on average over the whole period for sectors with a high import share, which can be related to the impact of global value chains