Impact of Fiscal Policy on Residential Investment in France.

The present paper assesses the impact of fiscal policy on residential investment in France. The analysis is conducted in the framework of a VECM, since this allows accounting for endogeneity between the variables. Our results imply that a long term relationship between investment and subsidies exists, making subsidies an adequate measure to influence residential investment and hence the business cycle. In addition, a disaggregated approach taking into account several different types of fiscal measures highlights that tax and interest rate subsidies are the most efficient fiscal tool for influencing residential investment. When accounting for financial factors by means of households' borrowing capacity, we find that the latter also impacts residential investment positively. Moreover, this alternative specification underlines the robustness of the above mentioned results, as it confirms subsidies as the most efficient measure to influence residential investment.Fiscal policy, residential investment, VECM.

The “housing bubble” and financial factors: Insights from a structural model of the French and Spanish residential markets.

Over the last decade, France and Spain have experienced property price and residential investment increases which were among the strongest and the lengthiest in the euro area. Although the quality of the underlying data limits the precision of the estimates, the present paper aims at analysing the fundamental factors behind these evolutions. The analysis presented here assesses whether the observed price dynamics may be attributed to a pure expectation bubble phenomenon or to the large changes in financial and demographic factors. This is done by means of a structural model of the demand and supply sides of the housing market with an error-correction process. When taking into account a standard set of macroeconomic variables, our estimates imply that residential property prices in France and Spain were approximately 20% above the level explained by their fundamentals. When demographic and financial factors such as the borrowing capacity are taken on board, the degree of overvaluation is drastically reduced. The adjustment path to equilibrium is slightly faster in France than in Spain, but both countries display significant downward rigidity in prices.House prices , Housing demand, Borrowing capacity , Residential Investment , Error correction model , Instrumental variables.

International Comparisons of Industry-based Productivity Levels in the Financial and Business Service Sectors

This article attempts to explain the relatively poor productivity growth in four major EU countries (Germany, France, United Kingdom, and Netherlands) relative to the United States. Our study is carried out from a sectoral perspective, focussing on the financial and business services sectors. Instead of examining only sectoral productivity growth rates, we also examine sectoral productivity level gaps. Our results imply that the productivity differential in the business services sector is a major factor behind the US lead in productivity.sectoral productivity, growth rates, level gaps, productivity growth, financial and business services

Use of endocommensal molluscan ciliated protozoa as indicators of water quality and pollution in Illinois waters

Fifteen species of unionid bivalves from seventeen localities in Central Illinois were carefully examined for ciliate protozoan infections. Many ciliates appeared occasionally, but the thigmotrich ciliates Conchophthirus and Heterocinetopsis unionidarum appeared abundantly and consistently. New observations on the morphology of Conchophthirus and their ultimate effect upon speciation within the genus are to be developed further by the junior author. H. unionidarum was found abundantly at one location. Although Conchophthirus and Heterocinetopsis were the only thigmotrichs uncovered in this study, the isolation of Heterocinetopsis suggests that other thigmotrich ciliates may also be found in Illinois. The ciliates Conchophthirus and Heterocinetopsis were tested for their ability to react as very delicate indicators of water quality. This was accomplished by planting infected bivalves in areas of known pollution in the Salt Fork Vermilion River dra.ina.ge system. At intervals after planting, individuals were recovered and carefully examined for the relative abundance of Conchophthirus and Heterocinetopsis. The preliminary results suggest that Heterocinetopsis may be the most critical indicator of biological pollution currently available for Illinois waters.U.S. Department of the InteriorU.S. Geological SurveyOpe

Computational holographic camera with a dielectric metasurface diffuser

We experimentally demonstrate computational complex optical field imaging by a metasurface diffuser and the speckle-correlation scattering matrix method. Thus, we show that the metasurface diffuser can outperform conventional scattering media in context of computational imaging