Does Over-education Influence French Economic Growth?

In the last two decades, France has experienced an increase in mismatches between education and work. This article studies twenty two years of French productivity to highlight the causes and effects of over-education on the employee wages and the national income. From the INSEE and Cereq data, this analysis shows a positive effect in the short term on wages of the least qualified and overeducated worker. Furthermore, over-education phenomenon does not penalize the higher graduates. Paradoxically, if it is always profitable for individuals to increase their education investment; in term of growth, over-education of the higher graduates produce an unfavourable short term effect on GDP.causality, growth, overeducation

Capacité d’utilisation du capital humain et croissance de la productivité française de 1980 à 2002

Face à un développement massif du phénomène de suréducation sur ces deux dernières décennies, cet article présente un modèle de fonction de production qui capture les relations entre la croissance et les désajustements offre/demande de qualifications. A partir de deux décennies de production française, notre analyse montre que ce phénomène réduit considérablement la productivité des travailleurs, en particulier pour les diplômés du supérieur. Le reclassement de ces derniers produirait, par ailleurs, un impact significatif sur la croissance du revenu national. Pourtant, malgré des situations d’inadéquate correspondance entre formation et emploi plus fréquentes, les qualifications universitaires restent toujours socialement bénéfiques en terme productif.

Earning Inequalities Between and Within Nests: A Multilevel Modeling Approach Applied to the Case of France

This paper presents a simultaneously study of the impact of gender and localization inequalities on the earnings of under-graduates. Using multilevel modeling, the framework draws both individual-level (i.e., pertaining to the individual elements of groups) and aggregate-level (i.e., pertaining to the group as a whole) data under a single specification, in order to study their potential interactions. These inequalities are studied with respect to young workers who left higher education in 2004 and who had a full-time job in the private sector three years after graduation (i.e., in 2007). To take into account the process of selection for employment, our multilevel model uses the Heckman two-step procedure. Following this approach, Occupational Groups (OG) are found to capture 59.4% of the earning heterogeneity whereas Employment Area (EA) nests capture 7.6%. This 59.4% figure is explained by two phenomena: (i) OG are dominated by seniors, and (ii) OG are dominated by males with higher earnings. These group characteristics also influence gender inequalities: there is a higher wage penalty for females in (i) OG dominated by males, and (ii) OG dominated by senior workers. In contrast to the gender gap, immigrant inequalities manifest closer links to EA. Policy implications are derived from our results.Multilevel Models, Earnings, Gender Inequality, Local Labor Market

Educational Mismatches, Wages and Economic Growth: A Causal Analysis for the French Case since 1980

In the last two decades, France has experienced an increase in mismatches between education and work. This article studies twenty two years of French productivity to highlight the causes and effects of overeducation on the employee wages and the national income. From the INSEE and Cereq data, this analysis shows a positive effect in the short term on wages of the least qualified and overeducated worker. Furthermore, overeducation phenomenon does not penalize the higher graduates. Paradoxically, if it is always profitable for individuals to increase their education investment; in term of growth, overeducation of the higher graduates produce an unfavourable short term effect on GDP.

The determinants of innovation adoption

Using a sample of 46 000 EU firms from the Community Innovation Survey, this paper analyses the drivers of innovation adoption. In contrast to most empirical studies on innovation diffusion in which a specific technology is analyzed, this study covers several countries and industries in the European Union. Following Van de Ven and Van Praag (1981), Heckman's method is applied in a context of binary endogenous variable to explain the choices made by firms regarding innovation. Distinctions are made between the internal generation of innovation and the adoption of innovation produced by others, as well as between different types of adoption (product vs. process and cooperation-based adoption vs. isolated adoption). The study is focused on the impact of users' features and their cooperation with suppliers on the adoption choices. The results point out that cooperation is a key driver of adoption choices. Usual determinants such as firm size, absorptive capability or exports would foster generation of innovation instead of adoption.Innovation adoption; Innovation diffusion; Community Innovation Survey; Process adoption; Product adoption

Earning Inequalities Between and Within Nests: A Multilevel Modeling Approach Applied to the Case of France

This paper presents a simultaneously study of the impact of gender and localization inequalities on the earnings of under-graduates. Using multilevel modeling, the framework draws both individual-level (i.e., pertaining to the individual elements of groups) and aggregate-level (i.e., pertaining to the group as a whole) data under a single specification, in order to study their potential interactions. These inequalities are studied with respect to young workers who left higher education in 2004 and who had a full-time job in the private sector three years after graduation (i.e., in 2007). To take into account the process of selection for employment, our multilevel model uses the Heckman two-step procedure. Following this approach, Occupational Groups (OG) are found to capture 59.4% of the earning heterogeneity whereas Employment Area (EA) nests capture 7.6%. This 59.4% figure is explained by two phenomena: (i) OG are dominated by seniors, and (ii) OG are dominated by males with higher earnings. These group characteristics also influence gender inequalities: there is a higher wage penalty for females in (i) OG dominated by males, and (ii) OG dominated by senior workers. In contrast to the gender gap, immigrant inequalities manifest closer links to EA. Policy implications are derived from our results

Heterogeneity in Technical Efficiency of the French Urban Transport: 1995 to 2002

In this paper, we analyze the heterogeneity in the technical efficiency of a sample of French urban transport companies with a translog production frontier model. The model generates efficiency disentangling homogenous and heterogeneous variables. Our study concluded that outputs and inputs play a major role in transport efficiency and we find that the efficiency scores vary along the sample. Policy implication is derived.Urban Transport; France, Translog random Frontier Model and Decision-Making Unit.

Productivity Changes and Intangible Assets : Evidence from French Plants

Working Paper GATE 2010-05This paper investigates the effect of inter-firm and intra-firm spillovers on the productivity of firms, using French data. The Luenberger Productivity Indicator (LPI) is used to estimate the productivity and to break it down into several components (e.g. efficiency, biased technical progress, scale effects, etc.). Using this approach, negative productivity changes are found due to the unfavourable economic situation over 2000-2002. Intangible assets underlying productivity change are then investigated through a Maximum Likelihood Random Effect (MLRE) model. Spillover effects – influencing Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and its correspondent components, technological and efficiency changes – are found

Introduction au numéro spécial "Travail, emploi et politiques publiques"

Ce numéro regroupe une sélection de sept communications sur les près de cinquante présentées lors du colloque 2012 de la Fédération de Recherche " Travail, Emploi et Politiques Publiques " (FR 3435 - CNRS) qui s'est déroulé à Caen les 14 et 15 juin. Ce colloque était plus particulièrement dédié à l'analyse des trajectoires professionnelles des travailleurs et, plus généralement, aux déterminants et modalités de leur carrière