"On Various Ways of Measuring Unemployment, with Applications to Switzerland"

This paper begins with an examination of various ways of measuring unemployment and, borrowing ideas from the poverty measurement literature, proposes four new general unemployment indices. The first of these is parallel to the Sen poverty index; the second, to the Sen index’s generalization by Shorrocks; the third, to the FGT poverty index; and the fourth, to the Watts poverty index. The authors then present an empirical illustration based on Swiss data compiled at the state, or canton, level, using the so-called Shapley decomposition to determine the contribution of three components—the traditional unemployment rate, the average unemployment duration, and the inequality in the unemployment durations—to the differences between the values of the four proposed indices, both within a given canton and within Switzerland as a whole. The paper concludes with a discussion of the assumptions made about the maximum unemployment duration for the purposes of the study, and their impact on the results

On Various Ways of Measuring Unemployment, with Applications to Switzerland

This paper discusses first various ways of measuring unemployment and, borrowing ideas from the poverty measurement literature, proposes four more general unemployment indices which are parallel to Sen poverty index, to its generalization by Shorrocks, to the FGT, and to the Watts poverty indices. It then presents an empirical illustration based on Swiss data at the level of the “canton.” More precisely, using the so-called Shapley decomposition, it computes the contribution to the difference between the value of each of these four unemployment indices in a given “canton” and in Switzerland as a whole, of three components measuring, respectively, the impact of differences in the traditional unemployment rate, in the average unemployment duration, and in the inequality in the unemployment durations. The paper ends by discussing the impact on the results obtained of assumptions made concerning the maximum unemployment duration

The theory of economic integration in presence of transfers between members of a customs union

This article investigates the effects of a transfer between two countries participating in a customs union. This analysis yield very paradoxical results and these outcomes differ from the conclusions obtained by the traditional literature which has been developed in a two-country framework or in a multilateral world but with universal free trade. The compensation scheme adopted by the authorities of the customs union may create an overall terms of trade deterioration and induce an impoverishment for both member countries. Thus, transfers may not be an adequate instrument to redistribute the gains of economic integration between the members of a free trade association

Français/informatique: regards croisés/ questions croisées, Conférence de Clôture invitée

International audienc

Les contenus « informatiques » et leur(s) reconstruction(s) par des élèves de CM2. Etude didactique

International audienceDans le cadre de ce numéro de la revue Recherches en Education, consacré aux différentes manières dont la recherche traite de l'élève à l'heure du numérique, nous nous intéressons ici aux relations entre les élèves en fin d'école primaire et les contenus d'enseignement informatiques, notamment ceux proposés par le brevet informatique et internet (B2i). Cet article, inscrit en didactique des disciplines, vise à caractériser ces contenus d'enseignement et à cerner quelques traits de la relation des élèves à ces contenus. En faisant appel au concept de conscience disciplinaire, nous tenterons de déterminer la manière dont les élèves se représentent ces contenus, les (re)construisent, se font une image de leur utilité et de leurs finalités. Les élèves seront donc envisagés ici en tant que sujets didactiques, c'est-à-dire en tant qu'« apprenants en informatique ». Après avoir analysé l'ancrage didactique de notre questionnement et de la démarche de recherche, nous nous interrogerons donc sur le statut disciplinaire des contenus informatiques, ainsi que sur la modélisation de l'élève que supposent et/ou qu'induisent ces contenus, avant d'en venir, au travers des réponses des élèves à un questionnaire, à la manière dont les élèves reconstruisent et vivent ces contenus