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.
with Ulysse Lojkine and Paolo Santini ( Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 63(2), 205-287.)
This study uses surveys from the past 60 years to study union membership in Denmark, France, West Germany, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We first revisit aggregate union densities finding that, for France and Italy, they were at times under- and overestimated, respectively. Second, we document the evolution of the composition of union membership in terms of gender, occupation, education, and sector. Different stylized facts emerge for different groups of countries. These facts do not lend support to the composition-based theory that attributes deunionization to deindustrialization, nor to the technological theory that predicts the exit of the high-skilled from unions.
It's a man's world: culture of abuse, #MeToo and worker flows
(Cesifo Affiliate Award 2022 finalist. R&R The Economic Journal)
with Caroline Coly and Sarah Schneider-Strawczynski
This paper investigates the impact of the #MeToo movement in the workplace, drawing on French survey data on harassment behaviours and administrative data on worker flows. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that, following the #MeToo movement, women began leaving high-risk workplaces at a significantly higher rate. This increase is mainly driven by women who quit their jobs. Both men and women who exit high-risk plants subsequently adjust their job search strategies toward less toxic workplaces.
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.
L’influence des syndicats depuis les années 1950 en France. De nouveaux éclairages à partir de données quantitatives
With Tristan Haute , Ulysse Lojkine, and Paolo Santini
Cet article restitue, à partir de multiples sources de données quantitatives, l’évolution de l’influence des syndicats en France depuis les années 1950. Nous relativisons d’une part les explications de la désyndicalisation des années 1980 par des transformations socioéconomiques ou par un renouvellement générationnel. Nous nuançons d’autre part l’idée d’un déclin linéaire, en faisant apparaître d'autres ressorts de la capacité de mobilisation des syndicats, liés au contexte économique, social et politique.