In France, the business tendency surveys conducted in all the important sectors of the economy are key components in diagnosing the economic outlook. Over the years, INSEE has gradually introduced business climate indicators for each business sector. Such indicators summarise the data contained...

Do tariffs inhibit trade flows by limiting the entry of exporting firms (extensive margin') or by restricting the average volume exported by each firm (intensive margin')? Using a gravity equation approach, we analyze how the decrease in tariffs promoted during the 1990s by the Uruguay Round...

This paper is an empirical study of the effect of shocks to firms' collateral, with a focus on land holdings. We find evidence that stand-alone French firms are credit constrained. They invest up to .39¬ more per extra euro of collateral, and they finance this additional investment by issuing...

This paper proposes an indicator for detecting business cycle turning points involving mixed frequency business survey unbalanced data. It is based on a hidden Markov-switching model and allows for the detection of regime changes in a given economy where information is displayed monthly and/or...

During the 80s, several empirical studies have shown a positive correlation between concentration, prices and profits. It is well known that these estimates all suffer from simultaneity bias: market structure and prices are affected by common factors, some of which are not observable, which...

In 1997, a new legislation banning below-invoice retail prices came into force in France. Individually negotiated discounts could no longer be passed on to consumers, which is equivalent to allowing industry-wide price oors. The anti-competitive effects of such practices are well-known. The...

We use the 1982 and 1993 reforms of the French pension system in the private sector to study the relationship between Social Security benefits and the well-being of the elderly between the late 70s and the beginning of the new century. Affecting people in a different way, depending on year of...

This paper presents some empirical evidence on the French labor market focusing on transitions between stable jobs, temporary work, unemployment and non-participation. The model used is based on a Markov chain mixture which allows to distinguish labor market histories that are confined to...

Determinants of plant locations are known to be multiple. Locations of partners and competitors are crucial, as well as the territory's local characteristics. Some local characteristics can be natural. Others, like local taxes, reflect local agents' decisions. To what extent are local taxes...

This paper uses repeated cross-sections of the INSEE Household Budget Survey to estimate life cycle profiles of consumption, controlling for cohort and time effects. We construct age profiles for total and nondurable consumption as well as expenditure patterns for consumer durables. We find...