Revue économique 66-6, novembre 2015

HOUSING PRICES IMPACT ON INEQUALITIES AND INEQUALITY MEASUREMENT

Clément Charbonnier

The Book of Thomas Piketty, Capital in the XXIst century, and following debates recalled the importance of housing capital and the variations of its valorization in measuring inequalities. I argue that market price overestimates housing stock value in time of bubble, but that conversely rents levels underestimate it. Overestimating the value of housing capital leads to an underestimation of wealth inequalities because it has a relatively greater impact on middle-class than on the upper end of the distribution. For the future, the distribution of types of capital and differences in returns can lead to an increase in income inequality.

WATER PRICE DIFFERENTIALS BETWEEN THE PRIVATE AND THE PUBLIC SECTOR IN FRANCE

Valérie Valéro

Over the next years, many private contracts to manage water provision are due to expire in France. The expiration of these contracts offers municipalities an opportunity to reconsider private management of water provision in favor of public management. A large majority of French municipalities currently delegate water services to private companies that face increasing opposition. The debate over the private provision of water services focuses particularly on prices. Indeed, prices are on average higher in municipalities where water services are privately managed. The purpose of this paper is to accurately evaluate the impact of private water management on water prices in France, taking into account the selection bias. Contrary to the previous empirical studies, we show that private management does not have a statistically significant impact on water prices.

THE LINEAR VOTING RULE LIMITATION STRATEGY TO REDUCE THE POWER OF A UNIQUE NEWCOMER OVER A FIRM'S CAPITAL

Bruno-Laurent Moschetto, Frédéric Teulon

This paper studies the rules that limit voting rights as a defensive measure against hostile takeovers. We consider atomistic shareholders and a small group of united minority shareholders, the hard core, that wants to block any hostile takeovers. This group constructs a device based on a threshold below which each share is linked to one vote and above which each share gives less than one vote, according to a coefficient of redistribution. It finds the optimal couple that blocks hostile takeovers while minimizing the negative impact on the market due to too strong protection of the hard core to the detriment of dispersed shareholders.

DEFAULT RISK AND PRODUCT MARKET COMPETITION

Nicolas Le Pape

The strategic impact of debt on the firms’ behavior in the product market was originally investigated by Brander and Lewis [1986]. They have shown that debt increases the level of competition in the industry. However, the lending policy of an increasing number of banks is based on an assessment of the borrower’s ability to repay the loan (scoring methods). The objective of this paper is to revisit models developed in Industrial Organization which focus on the strategic function of debt by recognizing a strategic function to the risk of default. We show that the strategic use of a default risk (instead of a level of debt) makes the firm more aggressive in the product market.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INNOVATION AND PRODUCTIVITY BASED ON R&D AND ICT USE. AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF FIRMS IN LUXEMBOURG

Ludivine Martin, Thuc Uyen Nguyen-Thi

This paper assesses whether Research and Development (R&D) investments and Information and Communication Technologies (ict) use play a role in determining the firm’s innovativeness and labour productivity. The estimation method is based on the three-step cdm model. Unlike most previous studies, this paper distinguishes between external and internal R&D expenditures. We also introduce different specifications of ict to capture their degree of variety, rather than aggregated measure of ict capital, as frequently applied in previous analyses. Results highlight the complexity of managing ict and R&D investments with regards to improving firm innovation. While confirming the acknowledged "innovation enabler" role of these innovation inputs, not all increases in ict investments and R&D translate into equivalent increases in a firm’s capacity to innovate. Estimation results also confirm the positive relationship between innovation and labour productivity

APPLICANTS FOR VALIDATION OF EXPERENTIAL LEARNING (VAE): THE EXAMPLE OF THE RHONE-ALPS REGION

Nathalie Havet

Our paper empirically investigates the profiles of candidates applying for Validation of Experential Learning (vae) procedure and those completing the procedure successfully. The analysis is based upon the exhaustive data of the candidates for vae in 2007-2009 in Rhone-Alps Region. We estimate econometric models which take into account the endogenous selection in each step of vae procedure. Our results show that while vae is a limited instrument for unemployed persons, it plays a true role for the unskilled or less qualified workers. The individual interviews at the start are decisive for the success of the procedure.

IMPACT OF DEMOGRAPHICS ON IMPORTS OF MAYOTTE

Fabien Candau, Serge Rey

Imports of Mayotte were multiplied by 8 over the last twenty years, widening the trade deficit of the island. At the same time the population of Mayotte has more than doubled. This article proposes to study the contribution of the growth of this population in the increase in imports over the period 2000-2010. The estimation of a micro-gravity equation based on a model with non-homothetic preferences can show that an increase of 1% of the total population leads to an increase of 1.23% of imports. In comparison, an increase of the population minus the illegal population impact imports by 0.46%.

DOES CRIME IMPACT BANK CARD ACCEPTANCE?

Bruno Karoubi

This paper investigates whether crime impacts the probability of bank card acceptance. We build an indicator composed of theft variables concerning primarily both consumers and merchants. We use a document published by the Home Office, the “état 4001”, to associate to each merchant the crime level of his department. We find that a high level of financial crime discourages card acceptance, while a high level of violent crime fosters it. The first effect interpreted to be the result of adverse selection, while the second effect results from a partial internalization of risks borne by consumers.