Transatlantic employment performances and job polarization.

Summary This thesis explores the implications of technological change and labor taxation for employment performances in France and the U.S. over the past four decades. Chapter 1 delves into transatlantic employment performances. It measures the extent to which cross-country discrepancies in socio-demographic and occupational structures account for the transatlantic employment gap over time. The French employment deficit does not only reflect a disfunctioning labor market but also the occupational reallocation of labor that affects the employment prospects and participation decisions of specific socio-demographic groups. Chapter 2 investigates the determinants of unskilled employment outcomes in France between 1982 and 2008. Technological change and labor taxation policies are pivotal to grasp the deterioration of unskilled employment. The reallocation of unskilled labor from routine jobs towards manual jobs induced by technological change is partly obstructed by the presence of a non­market sector. Labor taxation interacts with technological change by distorting the value of unskilled jobs with respect to non-market work. Chapter 3 studies the implications of routine-biased technological shocks for aggregate fluctuations between 1989 and 2017 in the U.S. It assesses the effects of technological shocks by estimating a structural VAR mode! with long-run exclusion and sign restrictions. Routine-biased technology shocks account for the recessionary effects of technological shocks on hours worked. These shocks appear quantitatively relevant and generate recognizable business cycle fluctuations.