Wage and price joint dynamics at the firm level: an empirical analysis

This article provides evidence about the interrelationships between wages and prices at the microeconomic level. We rely on the right-to manage model to specify and estimate a multivariate model explaining the timing and magnitude of wage changes at the firm level. The modeling of price changes relies on a state-dependent model. The data we use is a quarterly panel of about 1800 firms from the French manufacturing industry, observed over the years 1998 to 2005. We find the occurrence of wage changes to be essentially time dependent, though weakly related to the state of the economy. However, the magnitude of wage changes strongly depends on macroeconomic variables, namely inflation and unemployment, and to a lesser extent on the evolution of the firm product price and on its productivity gains. Changes in the firm product price are mostly driven by the evolution of its costs and more specifically by that of its intermediate inputs. The wage cost, as well as the production and the industry level inflation, have a weaker influence.wages, price stickiness, dynamic model, factor loadings.

La relation entre le taux des credits et le cout des ressources bancaires. Modelisation et estimation sur donnees individuelles de banques.

Nous presentons un modèle qui s'inscrit dans le schema theorique de l'economie d'endettement ou la fixation du taux des crédits obeit a une logique de facturation du cout des ressources bancaires. Ce modele suppose que la concurrence sur le marché des crédits est monopolistique et que les banques déterminent une structure de (re-financement des credits nouveaux. Les estimations, realisees a partir de donnees individuelles de banques francaises, indiquent un recours, par ordre decroisant d'importance, au marche monétaire, aux depots et au marche financier et conduisent a evaluer la repercussion de la politique monetaire sur le taux des credits a environ un et demi.Banques ; Crédit

Costs, demand, and producer price changes.

We estimate an ordered probit model in order to explain the occurrence and magnitude of producer price changes in the French manufacturing sector. We use data consisting essentially of the Banque de France monthly business surveys, pooled over the years 1998-2005. Our results show that changes in the price of intermediate inputs are the main driver of producer price changes. Firms also appear to react significantly to changes in the producer price index of their industry. Variations in labor costs as well as in the production level also appear to increase the likelihood of a price change but their influence seems to be of a lesser importance. We also show that estimating an unconstrained dynamic model allows improving the estimation results as compared to those associated with a standard state-dependent model. Finally, our results point to an asymmetry in price adjustments. When they face a change in their costs, firms adjust their prices upward more often and more rapidly than they do it downward.Price stickiness, frequency of price changes, price setting-behavior, survey data, ordered probit model.

Couts et benefices du passage d'une faible inflation a la stabilite des prix. Une comparaison internationale.

Cet article évalue, en reprenant l'approche de Feldstein [1996], quelques-uns des coûts et des bénéfices du passage d'une faible inflation (2%) à une inflation nulle pour les économies française, allemande, britannique, espagnole et américaine. Cette approche met l'accent sur les distorsions dans les décisions d'épargne et d'investissement en logement engendrées par l'indexation imparfaite du système fiscal. Des études récentes ont montré qu'un passage d'une inflation de 2% à la stabilité des prix conduisait à des gains en surplus des ménages de l'ordre de 1,05% du PIB par an aux Etats-Unis, de 1,4% en Allemagne, de 1,7% en Espagne et de seulement 0,21% au Royaume-Uni. Nous montrons que ces différences d'évaluation relèvent en grande partie du choix de l'élasticité de l'épargne au taux d'intérêt et de spécificités de la fiscalité de ces pays. En France, sur la base de la fiscalité de l'épargne prévalant en 1998, le bénéfice annuel du retour observé à la stabilité des prix serait de 0,66%.Inflation ; prix ; cycles economiques.

Is There a Bank lending Channel in France? Evidence From Bank Panel Data.

The aim of this paper is to check the possible existence of a bank lending channel in France. For that purpose, we have estimated a dynamic reduced form model allowing for asymmetries in loan supply across banks, depending on their size, liquidity and capitalization. We have used a panel of 312 French banks observed quarterly over the period 1993-2000. We find some asymmetry between liquid and illiquid banks, the latter being more sensitive to a monetary policy tightening. This result is in accordance with that obtained for several other countries of the Euro area. It constitutes an indication that, as far as they can, French banks sell part of their liquid assets in order to shield their loan portfolio from the effects of increases in the interest rate. Contrary to what has been found for the US (e.g., see Kashyap and Stein (1995, 2000) and Kishan and Opiela (2000)), we do not find the two other banks' characteristics we consider (size and capitalization) to have any significant impact on bank lending.Monetary policy; Credit channel.

Les ajustements des prix de production en France et dans la zone euro. Une synthèse à partir de données quantitatives et qualitatives.

Les modifications de l’environnement économique constituent pour les entreprises des incitations à modifier leurs prix. On observe toutefois que l’ampleur de ces révisions est assez modérée et que près d’une fois sur deux, ces révisions consistent en une baisse de prix.rigidité des prix, prix de production, fréquence de changement de prix.

Heterogeneity in Consumer Price Stickiness: A Microeconometric Investigation.

This paper examines heterogeneity in price stickiness using a large, original, set of individual price data collected at the retail level for the computation of the French CPI. To that end, we estimate, at a very high level of disaggregation, competing-risks duration models that distinguish between price increases, price decreases and product replacements. The main .ndings are the following: i) cross-product and cross-outlet-type heterogeneity in both the shape of the hazard function and the impact of covariates is pervasive ii) at the product-outlet type level, the baseline hazard function of a price spell is non-decreasing iii) there is strong evidence of state-dependence, especially for price increases.Sticky prices ; Heterogeneity ; Hazard function ; Duration models.

Caractéristiques des ajustements de prix en France et dans la zone euro : quelques faits stylisés tirés des données individuelles de prix à la consommation.

fréquence de changement de prix, prix à la consommation, rigidité des prix.

Myelofibrosis-Associated Lymphoproliferative Disease: Retrospective Study of 16 Cases and Literature Review

Background. To better describe the clinical, biological, and the outcome of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) with, at the initial presentation, bone marrow fibrosis (MF). Patients and Methods. From January 2001 to January 2007, 16 eligible patients with NHL and MF were retrieved from the Pathology Department of the University hospital of Amiens. Median age of patients was 62 years (range 16–74) with a sex ratio male/female of 3. Results. MF is associated with all types of lymphoma predominantly with B-cell phenotype and it seems to be more associated with low-grade NHL. B-symptoms are more frequent at diagnosis and more patients presented with an elevated LDH level. JAK-2 was negative in the 10 patients analysed. Two patients presented with features of primary MF with no evidence of lymphoma. Overall response rate was 94% after the first line of therapy with regression or improvement of MF. Relapse occurred in 8 patients (47%) with recurrence of MF in all of them. After a median follow-up of 42 months, 12 patients were alive with an overall survival rate for the entire group of 75%. Conclusions. MF-associated NHL is a rare manifestation which may be associated with all types of NHL and its presence does not seem to confer a poor prognosis. A search for lymphoproliferation should be considered when the cause of MF is not apparent

Compliance with recommendations of clinical practice in the management of venous thromboembolism in cancer: the CARMEN study

Cancer is associated with venous thromboembolism in 20% of patients. In such patients, thrombosis is difficult to treat, associated with bleeding, recurrence, and death. Specific treatments for venous thromboembolism in cancer are recommended. Guidelines have been implemented in many countries and international guidelines have been recently developed. We evaluated the adhesion to national French guidelines via a survey of cancer patients treated for venous thromboembolism. METHODS: A national cross-sectional observational study evaluated the adhesion to guidelines in hospitalized patients. Good clinical practice was defined as initial 10-day treatment with injectable molecules followed by long-term treatment with low molecular weight heparin for at least 3 months. Demographic data, cancer type, stage, treatment, risk factors and type of thrombosis, were recorded. RESULTS: Five patients were included in 47 centers. Overall adhesion to guidelines was present in 59% (55-63%) of patients (295/500). During initial treatment, adhesion was high (487/496; 98%) but dropped (296/486; 62%) during the long-term maintenance. In patients with renal insufficiency, only a fourth of them received the adequate treatment. A majority of patients had metastatic disease (64%). Cancer sites were gastro-intestinal (25%), gynecologic (23%), pulmonary (21%), hematological (14%), urologic (10%), or other (8%). Lung and hematological malignancies were significantly associated with the highest and lowest rates of adhesion. CONCLUSION: Adhesion to national guidelines for treatment of venous thromboembolism in cancer is not optimal. Good compliance is observed during initial treatment, but drops after 10 days, underlying the need for further education to achieve a better implementation on a national level