Statistical discrimination is the rejection of an individual because of some defects ? observed or believed ? on the aggregate characteristics of his group. Unlike negative discrimination, the rejection does not rely on prejudice or racial or gender bias, but on a probabilistic inference about...

How country size influences economic performance is an area that has received renewed interest, especially with Rose (2006), who found no pattern between a country?s size and its economic performance at the world level. However, when assessing the economic performance of EMU countries, a size...

The Going for Growth Reports published since 2005 by the OECD have already established their credibility at the international level. Even so, this paper claims that they are failing on two counts. On the one hand, their concepts are not totally in accordance with exogenous or endogenous growth...

The 2007-2009 crisis has led public finances in industrial countries to deteriorate strongly due to a fall in tax receipts, the implementation of fiscal recovery plans and rescue packages for the financial sector. The article provides an analysis of public finances latest developments with...

Contrary to most European countries, indexation rules of the French minimum wage are very precise. However, three possible rules are consistent with the texts, which diverge in particular in periods of deflation or of negative growth of real wages. The alternative interpretations can have a...

We present in this article a summary of our work on the relation between country size and growth strategy. We begin by reviewing the major steps in the literature on the economics of country size, focusing on contemporary contributions, from the Robinson volume (1960) to Alesina and Spolaore?s...

The specific rule governing the increases in the French minimum wage (SMIC) can lead to a change in the minimum wage which is larger than the change of the workers hourly base wage (SHBO), as did happen in 1985, 1987 and 2008. In this note we show that the probability of such an event depends on...

This paper revisits the relationship between health and growth in light of modern endogenous growth theory. We propose a unified framework that encompasses the growth effects of both, the accumulation and the level of health. Based on cross-country regressions where we instrument for both...

The financial and banking crisis in France, as in all industrialized countries, has had a considerable impact on the activity and evolution of public finances. If the lack of activity accumulated since the beginning of the crisis is expected to take over the next decade, the level of public debt...

This paper empirically investigates the interplay between economic performance and policies in OECD countries. Macroeconomic theory focuses on supply policies as a key determinant of country?s economic performance. Aggregate demand can play a role only in the short-run. This view rests on the...