Three Essays on Partial Activity.

Summary The first chapter reviews the literature on partial activity and introduces the three research questions developed in this thesis, namely the local diffusion of the use of partial activity in France over the period 2003-2014, the effect of partial activity on employment in France during the Great Recession of 2008-2009, and the effect of the 2012-2013 reforms of partial activity and the recurrent use of this device on aggregate output in France. In the second chapter, we highlight the local diffusion of the use of partial activity in France over the period 2003-2014. To do so, we evaluate the effect of the geographical proximity of establishments that have already resorted to partial activity in the past on the use of partial activity by an establishment for the first time over the period 2003-2014. Indeed, we argue that the information available to establishments about the scheme and its procedure, particularly through neighboring establishments, is a key determinant of partial activity use. Our stylized facts reveal that the use of partial activity is geographically concentrated and that this concentration has a dynamic character. We use a spatial concentration index (based on inter-establishment distances) as a measure of the local diffusion of partial activity information and take into account the other characteristics of establishments in order to distinguish the effect of this transmission of information from other determinants of the use of the system and thus highlight its impact on the use of partial activity by an establishment for the first time. Our results show the importance of the local diffusion of information on partial activity, that this diffusion decreases in the first few kilometers and that this information is transmitted both within a given sector and between sectors.In the third chapter, we evaluate the effect of partial activity on employment in France during the Great Recession of 2008-2009. We develop a theoretical model according to which the effect of partial activity varies according to the financial situation of firms. For firms facing a strong decrease in turnover, partial activity allows to safeguard employment, while for firms with a moderate decrease in turnover, partial activity leads to a decrease in hours worked without preserving employment. These contrasting theoretical effects are confirmed by our empirical results, which show that partial activity reduced the number of jobs destroyed only in the case of a significant reduction in turnover, but had no significant effect on employment for the other firms, which account for around 40% of partial activity users. These windfall effects, although considerable in relation to the partial activity scheme, remain negligible compared to other measures such as wage and hiring subsidies. Moreover, partial activity has not contributed to keeping alive companies in structural difficulties. Partial activity was therefore an effective means of safeguarding employment in France during the Great Recession of 2008-2009.