Research
Published Papers
Rival Guests or Defiant Hosts? The Economic impact of Hosting Refugee
with Sarah Schneider-Strawczynski (Journal of Economic Geography, Volume 22, Issue 2, March 2022, Pages 327–350, https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbab014)
This paper investigates the local economic cost of hosting refugees. Using administrative data in France, we show that the opening of small housing centers for refugees decreases the economic activity in hosting municipalities. We demonstrate that this downturn is related to a decline in the population by around two percentage points due to fewer people moving into hosting municipalities. This avoidance behavior of natives results from prejudices since the inflows of refugees are too small to disrupt economic activity. We also estimate the aggregate cost of hosting refugees.
The Longer term impact of hiring credits. Evidence from France
(Labour Economics, Volume 72, October 2021, 102052)
This article studies the implementation of a hiring credit aimed at small firms in France during the Great Recession. Using French administrative data, I estimate its effect on employment growth and worker flows in eligible firms more than two years after its end. The credit had a positive effect on employment growth due to more hires. Employment growth did not fall below its pre-treatment trends after the end of the credit, meaning created jobs were not transitory. The public cost per job created is 19% of its private cost in 2012.
The employment effects of working time reductions: Sector-level evidence from European reforms
with Andrea Garnero and Alesandro Tondini (Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Volume 62, Issue 3, July 2023 Pages 217-232).
Working time legislation is a key labour market regulation and the subject of heated and recurrent debates. A first-order concern is how this legislation may impact employment. In this paper, we exploit a panel of industry-level data in European countries to study the economic impact of national reductions in usual weekly working hours between 1995 and 2007. Our identification strategy relies on five national reforms that took place over this period and on initial differences across sectors in the share of workers exposed to the reforms. We show that, on average, the number of hours worked in more affected sectors fell relative to less affected sectors but employment did not increase, while the impact on wages and productivity appears to be positive but insignificant.
Labor Market Concentration and Wages: Incumbents versus New Hires
With Andrea Bassanini and Eve Caroli ( Labor Economics, Volume 81, April 2023, 102338)
We investigate the impact of labor market concentration on average wages and decompose it into its effects on new hires and incumbents, where incumbents are defined as individuals who were already employed in the same firm the year before. Using administrative data for France, we find that concentration negatively affects both new hires’ and incumbents’ wages with elasticities ranging from -0.0287 to -0.0296 and -0.0185 to -0.0230, respectively. It also reduces the probability that a worker be a new hire rather than an incumbent. When decomposing the overall effect of labor market concentration on wages into its different components, we find that the negative effect on incumbents’ wages accounts for between two thirds and three fourth of the total.
Working Papers
It's a man's world: culture of abuse, #MeToo and worker flows
(Cesifo Affiliate Award 2022 finalist)
with Caroline Coly and Sarah Schneider-Strawczynski
Sexual harassment and sexist behaviors are pervasive issues in the workplace and the environment that tolerates them may be difficult to change. In 2016, around 12% of women in France reported being subjected to toxic behaviors at work in the last year, including sexist comments, sexual or physical harassment, or violence. These toxic behaviors may create a double penalty for women who may have to leave their jobs in order to avoid them. This article examines the relationship between toxic behaviors and worker flows using the #MeToo movement as an exogenous shock to France’s workplace norms regarding toxic behaviors. Survey data on reported toxic behaviors in firms is combined with exhaustive administrative data to create a measure of toxic behavior risk for all French firms. We then apply a triple-difference strategy to compare female and male worker flows in high-risk versus low-risk firms before and after #MeToo. We find evidence of the double penalty effect as the #MeToo movement increased women’s relative exit rates from higher-risk workplaces while men’s worker flows remained unaffected. Women who were young, in executive positions, and who worked in firms with a high share of men, or a men CEO were even more likely to leave their job. The #MeToo movement also contributed to a shift in the job search strategies of both men and women from high-risk firms to lower harassment risk ones. This shows that social movements such as #MeToo can contribute to changes in workplace gender norms.
Termination of Employment Contracts by Mutual Consent and Labor Market Fluidity
with Eric Maurin
In many countries, the termination of employment contracts has to beeither on employer initiative or on employee initiative. In 2008, the Frenchgovernment introduced a change in doctrine: it became possible to terminateemployment contracts by mutual consent at a lower cost. We show that thereform was followed by a very significant increase of about 20% in outflow ofpermanent workers as well as by the replacement of around 10% of dismissalsfor cause by terminations by mutual consent. By promoting terminations bymutual consent, the reform has improved labor market fluidity and reducedthe risks of labor disputes.
Which side are you on? A historical perspective on union membership composition in four European countries
with Ulysse Lojkine and Paolo Santini
In this paper, we look at the long term evolution of the composition of union membership in the four largest European countries: France, West Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Using unexploited micro data coming from post electoral, labor, and household surveys, we first revisit commonly accepted unionization levels from the past 60 years. We find that, for France and Italy, union density was at time under- and over- estimated respectively. Second, we present long run evidence on the evolution of the composition of unions in terms of the characteristics (occupation, length of education, public or private sector, gender) of their members. Two types of unionisation emerge from this analysis. In France and Italy, the composition of unions has been primarily determined by structural changes in the composition of the workforce with no notable changes of the selection of the different groups into unions when aggregate density varied. In the the UK and West Germany, selection into unions changed dramatically. Blue collars and less educated worker were originally over-represented but this has declined over time. We argue that these two types of unionization are related to the institutional characteristics of each country and show that the evolution of selection into union is linked to the public-sectorization of unions: as union density fall, the share of public workers in unions increases.