PONSSARD jean Pierre

The development of electric mobility is the main technological compromise that can allow the automotive sector to drastically reduce its greenhouse gas and local pollutant emissions. From the withdrawal of thermal vehicles to the integration of electric vehicles in the electrical system, this thesis studies several economic aspects of this energy transition.The first chapter empirically studies the effects of urban policies to restrict the circulation of the most polluting vehicles, by analyzing the behavior of car sellers on local second-hand markets.The second chapter theoretically studies the optimal conditions for the electrification of the car fleet. The second chapter theoretically investigates the optimal conditions for fleet electrification, including recommendations for the coordination of sectoral policies. The third chapter continues by detailing the interactions between electric mobility and photovoltaic energy. The fourth chapter discusses the distributional effects of grid access pricing in the presence of joint development of electric mobility and decentralized power generation sources.

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Summary: Hydrogen is a possible alternative to the internal combustion engine, alongside battery-powered vehicles, in the context of reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with transport activities. The costs associated with hydrogen vehicles are currently high, even when considering the greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants avoided by their use. Efforts to reduce these costs, which will determine the social and environmental desirability of hydrogen vehicles, face two challenges : the high cost of refueling, linked to the crucial problem of coordination between development of the vehicle fleet and refueling infrastructure. and high purchase prices, which may decrease when sufficient quantities generate experience effects. This policy brief argues that each of these two handicaps calls for a specific policy design : at a local level for coordination between actors, and at a European level to generate sufficient volumes. The example of hydrogen-powered urban buses offers a telling illustration of these issues. Key points: The growing importance of the hydrogen sector has been encouraged by various initiatives in France. These initiatives are based on the idea of a regional ecosystem : around a city, a network of local communities, or even a department or a region. The example of hydrogen buses shows that the abatement costs induced by this technology are still too high. The problem lies both in the price of the vehicles and the supply of fuel. Reducing the costs associated with the supply of fuel requires the resolution of coordination problems linked to network effects, which calls for a response at the local level. Achieving vehicle purchase prices low enough to be competitive requires a European approach, which alone makes it possible to reach significant volumes.

In the context of mitigation actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions related to energy consumption, renewable energy sources (RE) appear as a relevant solution. They can be used for the production of electricity, heat and cold and in the transport sector. However, these energy sources have been slow to develop and there are significant differences between countries. In this thesis, I first study the empirical determinants of RE deployment. To do so, I conduct a systematic review of the existing quantitative literature that focuses on this topic at the country level. I find that this literature is quite fragmented and analyze the authors' results based on the specifications considered to study the existence of a consensus on the possible determinants of RE development at the national level. To complete this multi-country analysis, I focus on two barriers that are considered as important hindrances to the widespread use of RE: financing and acceptability. More specifically, I focus on the sector of participatory financing of RE. Indeed, crowdfunding is an innovative way of financing that allows citizens to participate in the financing of RE projects and therefore involves them in the process of energy transition to low-carbon sources. More specifically, I have chosen to study participatory financing of RE in the case of France because the sector has experienced strong growth in a favorable regulatory context. I carry out a case study of a participatory financing platform specialized in RE projects in order to present its economic model and the associated risks. Then, in order to better understand the characteristics of this sector, I give an overview of the different actors involved in the RE participatory financing sector in France: platforms, project holders and contributors. Finally, I conduct an empirical analysis of survey data concerning the decision-making process of citizens who have invested in RE participatory financing projects in France.

Summary: Hydrogen technology is a possible alternative to internal combustion engines, alongside battery-powered vehicles, in the perspective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with transportation activities. The costs associated with hydrogen vehicles are currently high, even when compared to the greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions avoided by their use. However, a reduction in the costs associated with hydrogen vehicles, which determines their social and environmental desirability, faces two types of difficulties. On the one hand, the high cost of recharging, where the problem of coordination between the development of the vehicle fleet and recharging infrastructure is crucial. This paper argues that each of these two handicaps calls for a public policy structured at a specific level: a local level for coordination between actors, and a European level to generate sufficient volumes. The example of hydrogen city buses offers a telling illustration of these issues. Key points: The rise of the hydrogen industry is encouraged by various initiatives in France. These initiatives are based on the notion of a regional ecosystem: around a city, a community of local authorities, or even a department or a region. The example of hydrogen buses shows that the abatement costs induced by this technology are still too high. The problem lies both in the price of the vehicles and in the supply of the fuel. Lowering the costs associated with fuel supply requires the resolution of coordination problems related to network effects, which calls for a response at the local level. Achieving vehicle purchase prices that are low enough to be competitive requires a European approach, which is the only way to achieve significant volumes.

We study pollution permit markets in which a fraction of permits are allocated to firms based on their output. Output-based allocations, which are receiving increasing attention in the design of carbon markets around the world (e.g., Europe, California, New Zealand), are shown to be optimal under demand and supply volatility despite the output distortions they may create. In a market that covers multiple sectors, the optimal design combines auctioned permits with output-based allocations that are specific to each sector and increasing in its volatility. When firms are better informed about the latter or must self select, the regulator resorts to some free (i.e., lump-sum) allocations to sort firms out. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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The correct affiliation for Anna Creti is: Universite Paris-Dauphine, PSL Research University, LEDa, CGEMP, 75016 Paris, France.

We consider a partial equilibrium model to study the optimal phasing out of polluting goods by green goods. The unit production cost of the green goods involves convexity and learning-by-doing. The total cost for the social planner includes the private cost of production and the social cost of carbon, assumed to be exogenous and growing at the social discount rate. Under these assumptions the optimization problem can be decomposed in two questions: (i) when to launch a given schedule. (ii) at which rate the transition should be completed that is, the design of a transition schedule as such. The first question can be solved using a simple indicator interpreted as the MAC of the whole schedule, possibly non optimal. The case of hydrogen vehicle (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles) offers an illustration of our results. Using data from the German market we show that the 2015-2050 trajectory foreseen by the industry would be consistent with a carbon price at 52(sic)/t. The transition cost to achieve a 7.5 M car park in 2050 is estimated at 21.6 billion (sic) that is, to JEl 4% discount rate, 115 (sic) annually for each vehicle which would abate 2.18 tCO(2) per year.

Output-based allocations (OBAs) are typically used in emission trading systems (ETS) with a fixed cap to mitigate leakage in sectors at risk. Recent work has shown they may also be welfare enhancing in markets subject to supply and demand shocks by introducing some flexibility in the total cap, resulting in a carbon price closer to marginal damage. We extend previous work to simultaneously include both leakage and volatility. We study how OBA permits can be implemented under an overall cap that may change with the level of production in contrast with a design that deducts OBA permits from the overall permit allocation as is the current practice in the EU-ETS and California. We show that introducing OBA permits while keeping the overall cap fixed would only increase price fluctuations and induce severe welfare losses to non-OBA sectors.

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Three dimensions characterize a management control system: the nature of the involvement of operational managers, the degree of customization of the underlying tools and the relationship with the compensation policy. This characterization further formalizes the distinction between diagnostic and interactive control systems introduced by Simons (1995). It provides an interesting framework to discuss the recurrent attempts to renovate management control that followed the severe criticism of Johnson and Kaplan (1987). In this framework, information systems based on a strategic vision of the activity are representative of interactive control while value based management systems such as EVA are representative of diagnostic control. The strengths and weaknesses of each approach are discussed using the proposed taxonomy as a theoretical grid.

Simons (1995) proposed to differentiate between diagnostic and interactive systems according to the nature of the commitment of operational managers. The purpose of this article is to introduce two other dimensions to better differentiate these two modes of control: the more or less generic nature of the information systems and the more or less objective degree of the incentive systems that accompany them in practice. This expanded grid sheds new light on the recurrent debates within management control since the work of Johnson and Kaplan (1987). In particular, it makes it possible to characterize tools such as the balanced score card or the implementation of value creation indicators (VCI) as representative of either interactive or diagnostic control. Rather than opposing these approaches, the proposed grid highlights their necessary complementarity.

Sustainable food concerns have pushed public authorities to act by means of regulations, standards and other devices, and businesses to innovate in their products and production processes. We argue that the Porter hypothesis—which asserts that properly designed and implemented environmental regulation might be good for society as well as the targeted firms—might well be verified in this context. After reviewing and illustrating the working principles and main criticisms of this hypothesis, we provide a more in-depth discussion of nutritional issues. While the literature generally points to organizational imperfections and market failures to validate the Porter hypothesis, we submit and model another rationale for the agro-food industry, a rationale that is based on consumer behavior.

Deregulation of the electricity market has shown many changes in the economy and has influenced researchers to initiate studies in this area. Italy provides an interesting case study to explore the electricity market because of its specifications. Our project consists of three independent quantitative studies to view the Italian electricity market from three different angles. The first study answers the question of forecasting caused by the volatility of the electricity market. The result suggests an alternative forecasting method for modeling electricity prices in Italy. The second research examines the impact of renewable energy on the occurrence of congestion and its costs. We analyze the quantitative properties of the econometric estimation in order to understand the economic mechanism and derive the policy suggestion. Finally, the final research analyzes the price interdependence in six macro-areas of the Italian electricity market.

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We study pollution permit markets in which a fraction of permits are allocated to firms based on their output. Output-based allocations, which are receiving increasing attention in the design of carbon markets around the world (e.g., Europe, California, New Zealand), are shown to be optimal under demand and supply volatility despite the output distortions they may create. In a market that covers multiple sectors, the optimal design combines auctioned permits with output-based allocations that are specific to each sector and increasing in its volatility. When firms are better informed about the latter or must self select, the regulator resort to some free (i.e., lump-sum) allocations to sort firms out. Numerical exercises illustrate the policy relevance of our results: the gains from considering output-based allocations can be substantial.

What is the long-term (2030-50) economic and regulatory framework to support the energy transition from fossil fuels to hydrogen in the European transport sector? This research combines theoretical and empirical approaches to answer the following three questions:1. How to design appropriate support policies to overcome market imperfections in the deployment of hydrogen mobility technologies? 2. How to model abatement costs taking into account learning effects (LBD)?3. How to define the optimal deployment trajectory when LBD and convexity of investment costs are present? The paper 'Transition to a Hydrogen Passenger Transport System: Comparative Policy Analysis' scrutinizes support policies aimed at solving market imperfections in the deployment of hydrogen mobility. The paper makes an international comparison of instruments to support vehicle deployment. Ex-post indicators of policy effectiveness are developed and calculated to classify countries according to their willingness to promote fuel cell vehicles (FCEV). Today, Japan and Denmark appear to be the best providers of an enabling environment for hydrogen mobility deployment. Local authorities are introducing strong pricing instruments (such as subsidies and tax exemptions) to make FCEVs more attractive than their gasoline counterparts and are coordinating the deployment of hydrogen infrastructure in the territory.The paper 'Modeling Abatement Costs in the Presence of Learning Effects: The Case of the Hydrogen Vehicle' presents a model of the transition of the transportation sector from a polluting state to a clean state. A partial equilibrium model is developed for an automotive sector of constant size. The social optimum is reached by minimizing the cost of the transition of the car fleet over time. This cost includes the private costs of producing decarbonized vehicles (subject to learning effects) as well as the social cost of CO2 emissions which follows an exogenous upward trend. The paper characterizes the optimal trajectory as a gradual replacement of polluting vehicles by decarbonized ones. During the transition, the equalization of marginal costs takes into account the impact of present actions on future costs via the learning effect. The paper also describes a sub-optimal trajectory where the deployment trajectory would be an exogenous data: what would be the optimal starting date of the transition? The paper presents a quantitative assessment of the substitution of FCEVs for internal combustion vehicles (ICEs). The analysis concludes that FCEV will become an economically viable option to decarbonize part of the German car fleet by 2050 as soon as the carbon price reaches 50-60€/t.The paper 'The Role of Learning Effects in the Adoption of Green Technology: The Linear LBD Case' studies the characteristics of an optimal deployment path of decarbonized vehicles in the case where learning effects and convexity are present in the cost function. The partial equilibrium model of Creti et. al (2015) is used as a starting point. In the linear LBD case the optimal deployment trajectory is obtained analytically. Strong learning induces an earlier transition to green vehicles in the weak convexity case and a later transition in the strong convexity case. This result allows us to revisit the H2 Mobility project in Germany. A stronger learning effect and an accelerated deployment lead to a less costly transition and a shorter period of negative cash flow.

The paper provides a cost benefit analysis of one of the most prominent deployment project in France of fuel cell electric vehicles, taking place in Normandy. The project builds on the substitution of a diesel Renault Kangoo by an electric Renault Kangoo ZE with a fuel cell range extender for public fleets. The analysis points out potential weaknesses of the project as it is envisioned today using a decomposition of the value-chain. To achieve sustainability in 2025 a much stronger deployment should take place. This would allow for a sharp decrease in the total cost of ownership thanks to a close coordination between hydrogen production and its delivery through refilling stations to take advantage of the expected increasing volume of hydrogen consumption along the deployment path. This suggests that a high level in public funds at this early deployment phase can be critical for the success of the project.

A recurrent criticism of subsidies to clean technologies (renewable energies, solar, clean development mechanisms, electric cars, etc.) is the existence of deadweight effects: investments benefit from subsidies that they do not need to be profitable. This paper formalizes this type of situation as the selection of a portfolio of projects by the state in a context of asymmetric information. It shows that a form of guaranteed financing, with reimbursement in case of success, allows to limit windfall effects and public expenditures while maximizing the social benefit in terms of emission reductions. The relevance of the proposed mechanism is illustrated in the context of subsidies for the deployment of infrastructure for hydrogen vehicles.

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In the last decade a growing articulation of the business strategy of the firms with some specific global societal challenge in line with its core activities has been observed. This change provides both a need and an opportunity for Base of the Pyramid (BoP) activities to migrate from their preserved status within the Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) department to business operations. We explore the successive steps associated with this change at Schneider Electric through a longitudinal case study. The newly adopted business strategy of the firm clearly facilitates the change in the mindsets all through the company. Still the need for adapting the management systems remains pending. A key finding that emerges from our analysis is to instill interactive processes through an organizational change and a strong commitment on the commercial purpose of the BoP activities. We also highlight that BoP activities cannot be directly transferred to operational entities without simultaneously identifying which of the functional department will be in charge of providing the corresponding management systems and support such longer-term investments.

Demand uncertainty is thought to influence irreversible capacity decisions. Suppose that local demand can be sourced from domestic (rigid) production or from (flexible) imports. This paper shows that the optimal domestic capacity is either increasing or decreasing with demand uncertainty, depending on the relative level of the costs of domestic production and imports. We test this relationship with data from the U.S. cement industry, in which the difference in marginal cost between domestic production and imports varies across local U.S. markets because cement is costly to transport over land. Industry data for 1999 to 2010 are consistent with the predictions of the model. The introduction of two technologies to the production set-one rigid and one flexible-is crucial to understanding the relationship between capacity choice and uncertainty in this industry because there is no relationship between these two variables in aggregated U.S. data. Our analysis reveals that the relationship is negative in coastal districts, and significantly more positive in landlocked districts.

In industries with large sunk costs, the investment strategy of competing firms depends on the regulatory context. We consider ex-ante industrial policies in which the sunk cost may be either taxed or subsidized, and antitrust policies which could be either pro-competitive (leading to divestiture in case of high ex-post protability) or lenient (allowing mergers in case of low ex-post protability). Through a simple entry game we completely characterize the impact of these policies and examine their associated dynamic trade-offs between the timing of the investment, the ex-post benefits for the consumers, and the possible duplication of fixed costs. We find that merger policies are dominated by ex-ante industrial policies, whereas the latter are dominated by divestiture policies only under very special circumstances.

Since the stagflation observed following the sharp rise in the price of oil in 1973 and 1979, oil shocks have been considered one of the most important sources of fluctuations in the United States as well as in many industrialized countries. Numerous articles have then studied the role of oil shocks in the fluctuation of the main macroeconomic variables, namely growth, unemployment, inflation and wages. However, this work has not yet led to a consensus. The debate has even intensified over the last decade, following the lack of reaction of the real economy during the period of rising oil prices between 2002 and 2007. Indeed, stagflation was only observed at the time of the subprime crisis in 2008. Several hypotheses have been put forward to explain the difference between the crises of the 1970s and 2000. Blanchard & Gali (2009) and Blanchard & Riggi (2013) mention, for example, the reduction in the quantity of oil used in the production process, the greater flexibility of real wages and the greater credibility of monetary policy. Hamiltion (2009) and Kilian (2008) suggest the difference in the origin of the two oil shocks: a supply shock in the 1970s and a demand shock in the 2000s. The objective of this thesis is to re-examine the impact of oil shocks on the real economy. First, based on the work of Blanchard & Gali, we propose three new dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models, which incorporate oil as both a factor of production and a consumption good. By relaxing several assumptions adopted in Blanchard & Gali, our models allow a better simulation of the real economy and thus a more detailed study of the transmission mechanisms of shocks. Second, we analyze several types of public interventions that could mitigate the impact of oil shocks on the economy.

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Deterring the formation or continuation of cartels is a major objective of antitrust policy. We develop a dynamic framework to characterize the compensation and deterrence properties of fines, based on the fact that cartel stability depends on the ability to prevent deviation, which itself depends in part on fines imposed in case of detection and conviction. We show that the proper consideration of cartel dynamics plays a major role in determining optimal deterrent fines. Our results suggest that fines imposed by the European Commission in recent years meet the deterrence objective in a significant number of cases.

In Europe the transport sector contributes about 25% of total GHG emissions, 75% of which come from road transport. Contrarily to industrial emissions road emissions have increased over the period 1990-2015 in OECD countries: California (+26%), Germany (0%), France (+12%), Japan (+2%), Denmark (+30%). The number of registered vehicles on road in these countries amounts respectively to: California (33 million), Germany (61.5 million), France (38 million), Japan (77 million), Denmark (4 million). Even if these numbers are not expected to grow in the future this calls for major programs to reduce the corresponding GHG emissions in order to achieve the global GHG targets for 2050. The benefits from these programs will spread out to non OECD countries in which road emissions are bound to increase. Programs to promote zero emissions vehicles (ZEV) effectively started in the 2000’s through public private partnerships involving government agencies, manufacturers, utilities and fuel companies. These partnerships provided subsidies for R&D, pilot programs and infrastructure. Moreover, technical norms for emissions, global requirements for the portfolio of sales for manufacturers, rebates on the purchasing price for customers as well as various perks (driving bus lanes, free parking, etc.) are now in place. These multiple policy instruments constitute powerful incentives to orient the strategies of manufacturers and to stimulate the demand for ZEV. The carbon tax on the distribution of fossil fuels, whenever it exists, remains low and, at this stage, cannot be considered as an important driving force. The cases studies reveal important differences for the deployment of battery electric vehicle (BEV) versus fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV). BEV is leading the game with a cheaper infrastructure investment cost and a lower cost for vehicle. The relatively low autonomy makes BEV mostly suited for urban use, which is a large segment of the road market. The current level of BEV vehicles on roads starts to be significant with California (70,000), Germany (25,000), France (31,000), Japan (608,000) Denmark (3,000), but they remain very low relative to the targets for 2020: California (1.5 million), Germany (1 million), France (2 million), Japan (0.8-1.1 million for ZEV new registrations), Denmark (0.25 million). The developments and efficiency gains in battery technology along with subsidies for battery charging public stations are expected to facilitate the achievement of the growth. The relative rates of equipment (number of publicly available stations / number of BEV) provide indirect evidence on the effort made in the different countries: California (3%), Germany (12%), France (28%), Japan (11%), and Denmark (61%). In some countries public procurement plays a significant role. In France Autolib (publicly available cars in towns) represents a large share of the overall BEV deployment (12%), and the government recently announced a 50% target for low emissions in all public vehicles new equipment. FCEV is still in an early deployment stage due to a higher infrastructure investment cost and a higher cost for vehicle. The relatively high autonomy combined with speed refueling make FCEV mostly suited for long distance and interurban usage. At present there are only a very limited numbers of HRS deployed: California (28), Germany (15), France (6), Japan (31), Japan (7), Denmark (7), and only a few units of H2 vehicles on road: California (300), Germany (125), France (60), Japan (7), Denmark (21). However, a detailed analysis of the current road maps suggests that FCEV has a large potential. Targets for the 2025-2030 horizons are significant in particular in Germany (4% in 2030), Denmark (4.5% in 2025) and Japan (15-20% for ZEV new registrations in 2020). The California ARB has recently redefined its program (subsidies and mandates) to provide higher incentives for FCEV. France appears to focus on specialized regional submarkets to promote FCEV (such as the use of H2 range extending light utility vehicles). The financing of the H2 infrastructure appears as a bottleneck for FCEV deployment. Roadmaps address this issue through progressive geographical expansion (clusters) and a high level of public subsidies hydrogen refueling station (HRS) in particular in all countries except France. At this stage of BEV and FCEV do not appear as direct competitors. they address distinct market segments. Unexpected delays in the development of infrastructure in FCEV, possible breakthroughs in battery technology, and the promotion of national champions may change the nature of this competition, making it more intense in the future.

The transition of a sector from a pollutant state to a clean one is studied. A green technology, subject to learning-by-doing, progressively replaces an old one. The notion of abatement cost in this dynamic context is fully characterized. The theoretical, dynamic optimization, perspective is linked to simple implementation rules. The practical "deployment" perspective allows to study sub-optimal trajectories. Moreover, the analysis of the launching date provides a denition of a dynamic abatement cost easy to use for evaluation of real-world policy options. The case of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles offers an illustration of the proposed methodology.

This study develops a consistent framework to compare FCEV with gasoline ICE (ignition combustion engine) and applies this framework to the German market over the period 2015-2050. As such it provides for: - The formulation of a proper cost benefit analysis, including the definition of the abatement cost for the hydrogen technology. - The simulation of the results under various technological and cost assumptions. - The identification of the major conceptual issues to facilitate analytical developments. The sources used in the analysis are based on an update of previous industry studies. The main conclusion is that FCEV could be a socially beneficial alternative for decarbonizing part of the projected German car park at the horizon 2050. The corresponding abatement cost would fall in the range of 50 €/t CO2 to 60 €/t CO2. This range is higher than the current estimate for the normative cost of carbon as expressed in Quinet (2009 and 2013), which is around 30€/t in 2015. Still the gap is not out of hand. We identify the market and cost conditions that would shorten the gap. The methodology used in this study could be expanded to integrate two pending issues noted in the literature for the successful deployment of FCEV: - Making the deployment for FCEV endogenous and depending on the public and private instruments that could induce the decreasing of costs and the acceptance of the FCEV technology by consumers. - Designing an appropriate institutional framework to promote cooperation for manufacturing FCEV, producing carbon free H2 and investing in the distribution of H2. The initial sunk costs necessary for investment cannot be recouped through pure market equilibrium behavior. This study already provides an order of magnitude to quantify these issues.

Competitiveness and carbon leakage are major concerns for the design of CO2 emissions permits markets. In the absence of a global carbon tax and of border carbon adjustments, output-based allocation is a third-best solution and is actually implemented (Australia, California, New Zealand). The EU has followed a different route. free allowances are allocated to existing or new capacities in proportion to a benchmark, independent of actual production. This paper compares these two schemes in a formal setting and shows that the optimal one is in fact a combination of both schemes, or output-based allocation alone if uncertainty is limited. A key assumption of our analysis is that the short-term import pressure depends both on the existing capacities and the level of demand, which is typical in capital intensive and internationally traded sectors. A calibration of the model is used to discuss the EU scheme for the cement sector in the third phase of the EU-ETS (2013–2020). This allows for a quantification of various policies in terms of welfare, investment, production, company profits, public revenues and leakage.

For carbon-intensive, internationally-traded industrial goods, a unilateral increase in the domestic CO2 price may result in the reduction of the domestic production but an increase of imports. In such sectors as electricity, cement and steel, the trade flows result more from short-term regional disequilibria between supply and demand than from international competition. This paper formalizes this empirical observation and characterizes its impact on carbon leakage. Domestic firms invest in domestic plants under uncertain domestic demand conditions. then, as uncertainty unfolds, they may supply the domestic market from their domestic plants or from imports. We prove that there would be no leakage in the short term (without capacity adjustment) but that there would be in the long term (with capacity adjustment). Furthermore the larger the uncertainty, the larger the leakage. We also characterize the impact of uncertainty on the (short and long term) pass-through rates of the carbon price. In the concluding section we discuss the implications of these results for the evaluation of climate policies.

We study a principal–agent model in which the agent can provide ex post additional relevant information regarding his performance. In particular, he can provide a legitimate excuse, that is, evidence that a poor result is only due to factors outside his control. However, building a convincing case requires time, time that is not spent on exerting productive effort and thus generating information represents an opportunity cost. We obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for the principal to prefer a policy of adjusting ex post the performance measure for the information provided by the agent to a policy of conforming to a result-based system with no adjustments. The risk aversion and a possible limited liability of the agent play an important role in the analysis. This paper clarifies the issues associated with the so-called “excuse culture” prevailing in some organizations.

Demand uncertainty is thought to in uence irreversible capacity decisions. Suppose local demand can be sourced from domestic (rigid) production or from (fl exible) imports. This paper shows that the optimal domestic capacity is either increasing or decreasing with demand uncertainty depending on the relative level of the costs of domestic production and imports. This relationship is tested with data on the U.S. cement industry, where, because cement is costly to transport over land, the diff erence in marginal cost between domestic production and imports varies across local U.S. markets. Industry data for 1999 to 2010 are consistent with the predictions of the model. The introduction of two technologies to the production set one rigid and one exible is crucial in understanding the relationship between capacity choice and uncertainty in this industry because there is no relationship at the aggregated U.S. data. The analysis presented in the paper reveals that the relationship is negative for coastal districts, and signi cantly more positive in landlocked districts.

The Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) market has been growing steadily for the past few years, but remains very marginal among individual investors despite the creation of labels indicating approaches that take into account extra-financial criteria. The objective of this article is to understand this difficulty by constructing an analysis grid based on three main elements: the interest and characteristics of a label, the organizations promoting a label, and the competitive dynamics between labels. A longitudinal analysis based on these elements allows us to verify the effectiveness of labeling in structuring a market. The relevance of the approach is illustrated in two mature markets: fair trade and organic agriculture. Our main conclusion regarding SRI is that the expected effect of structuring the market through labelling is still in the making. Two weaknesses are identified. On the one hand, the attributes highlighted by the existing labeling reflect much more the point of view of producers (management companies) than of consumers (investors). On the other hand, SRI is distributed through the network of banks and insurance companies, a network for which the strategic stakes are much lower than those of fair trade or organic farming in the corresponding sectors. It is when the label becomes a commercial issue that the corresponding market gradually acquires its maturity.

We study a principal-agent model in which the agent can provide ex post additional relevant information regarding his performance. In particular, he can provide a legitimate excuse, that is, evidence that a poor result is only due to factors outside his control. However, building a convincing case requires time, time that is not spent on exerting productive eff ort, and thus generating information represents an opportunity cost. We obtain necessary and suffi cient conditions for the principal to prefer a policy of adjusting ex post the performance measure for the information provided by the agent to a policy of conforming to a result-based system with no adjustments. The risk aversion and a possible limited liability of the agent play an important role in the analysis. This paper clarifi es the issues asso- ciated with the so-called \excuse culture" prevailing in some organizations.

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This paper investigates incentives for firms to increase output above the activity level thresholds (ALTs) in order to obtain more free allowances in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. While ALTs were introduced in order to reduce excess free allocation to low-activity installations, for installations operating below the threshold, the financial gain from increasing output to reach the threshold may outweigh the costs. Using installation level data for 246 clinker plants, we estimate the effect of ALTs on output decisions. The ALTs induced 5.8Mt of excess clinker production in 2012 (4% of total EU output), which corresponds to 5.2Mt of excess CO2 emissions (over 5% of total sector emissions). As intended, ALTs do reduce overallocation (by 6.6million allowances) relative to a scenario without ALTs, but an alternative output based allocation would further reduce overallocation by 39.5million allowances (29% of total cement sector free allocation). Firms responded disproportionately to ALTs in countries with low demand, especially in Spain and Greece. The excess clinker output lead to increased EU clinker and cement exports, production shifting between plants and also an increase in clinker content of cement thus reducing the carbon efficiency of cement production.

Competitiveness and carbon leakage are major concerns for the design of CO2 emissions permits markets. In absence of a global carbon tax and of border carbon adjustments, output based allocation is a third best solution and is actually implemented (Australia, California, New Zealand). The EU has followed a diff erent route. free allowances are allocated to existing or new capacities in proportion to a benchmark independent of actual production. This paper compares these two schemes and shows that the optimal one is actually a combination of both schemes, or output based allocation alone if uncertainty is limited. A key assumption of our analysis is that the short term import pressure depends both on the existing capacities and the level of demand, which is typical in capital intensive and internationally traded sectors. A calibration of the model is used to discuss the EU scheme for the cement sector in the third phase of the EU-ETS (2013-2020). This allows for a quanti cation of various policies in terms of welfare, investment, production, fi rms profi ts, public revenues and leakage.

The social and environmental responsibility of agriculture and agri-food companies is now widely questioned. This economic sector is at a crossroads given the numerous environmental externalities of the sector's activity, the health safety problems linked to globalization and trade developments, and finally the public health issue linked to overeating and obesity. These issues are pushing public authorities to react very strongly through regulations, norms and other standardization measures, and companies to invest in CSR actions to maintain their reputation in the long term. In line with Porter's hypothesis, we show how it is possible to coordinate these two types of strategic levers, by demonstrating to what extent regulations can induce a "win-win" virtuous circle, in order to favor both corporate profits and the societal balance of their activities.

Socially responsible investment (SRI) in France remains underdeveloped for retail investors, despite the strong growth of SRI funds and the launch of labels for them. The objective of this article is to better understand the limited role of labels. The analysis is based on the interaction between three elements: labels and information asymmetry, choice of informational attributes of labels and objectives of labeling organizations, and competition between labels. Two factors explain the limited impact of labels. First, the informational attributes highlighted by the labels reflect the point of view of management companies rather than that of individual investors. Secondly, SRI is mainly distributed to retail investors through the banking and insurance networks, for which SRI does not constitute a real competitive differentiator.

We present a methodology to assess the profitability of a capital intensive industry over a business cycle and to make projections of profitability for different investment strategies under various hypothetical scenarios for environmental and competition policies. The methodology is applied to the European cement industry over the period 2004‐2012 (Part I) and over the next 10/15 years (Part II) using publicly available data, interviews of financial analysts and industry experts.

We study a principal-agent model in which the agent can provide ex post additional relevant information regarding his performance. In particular, he can provide a legitimate excuse, that is, evidence that a poor result is only due to factors outside his control. However, building a convincing case requires time, time that is not spent on exerting productive eff ort, and thus generating information represents an opportunity cost. We obtain necessary and suffi cient conditions for the principal to prefer a policy of adjusting ex post the performance measure for the information provided by the agent to a policy of conforming to a result-based system with no adjustments. The risk aversion and a possible limited liability of the agent play an important role in the analysis. This paper clarifi es the issues asso- ciated with the so-called \excuse culture" prevailing in some organizations.

Deterring the formation or continuation of cartels is a major objective of antitrust policy. We develop a dynamic framework to characterize the compensation and deterrence properties of fines, based on the fact that cartel stability depends on the ability to prevent deviation, which itself depends in part on fines imposed in case of detection and conviction. We show that the proper consideration of cartel dynamics plays a major role in determining optimal deterrent fines. Our results suggest that fines imposed by the European Commission in recent years meet the deterrence objective in a significant number of cases.

For carbon-intensive, internationally-traded industrial goods, a unilateral increase in the domestic CO2 price may result in the reduction of the domestic production but an increase of imports. In such sectors as electricity, cement or steel, the trade ows result more from short-term regional disequilibria between supply and demand than from international competition. This paper formalizes this empirical observation and characterizes its impact on leakage. Domestic fi rms invest in home plants under uncertainty. then, as uncertainty unfolds, they may source the home market from their home plants or from imports. We prove that there would be no leakage in the short-term (without capacity adaptation) but there would be in the long-term (with capacity adaption). Furthermore, the larger the uncertainty the larger the leakage is. We also characterize the impacts of uncertainty on the (short-term and long-term) pass-through rates. In the concluding section we discuss the implications of these results for the evaluation of climate policies.

We present a methodology to assess the profitability of a capital intensive industry over a business cycle and to make projections of profitability for different investment strategies under various hypothetical scenarios for environmental and competition policies. The methodology is applied to the European cement industry over the period 2004‐2012 (Part I) and over the next 10/15 years (Part II) using publicly available data, interviews of financial analysts and industry experts.

We study a principal-agent model in which the agent can provide ex post additional relevant information regarding his performance. In particular, he can provide a legitimate excuse, that is, evidence that a poor result is only due to factors outside his control. However, building a convincing case requires time, time that is not spent on exerting productive eff ort, and thus generating information represents an opportunity cost. We obtain necessary and suffi cient conditions for the principal to prefer a policy of adjusting ex post the performance measure for the information provided by the agent to a policy of conforming to a result-based system with no adjustments. The risk aversion and a possible limited liability of the agent play an important role in the analysis. This paper clarifi es the issues asso- ciated with the so-called \excuse culture" prevailing in some organizations.

The Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) market has been growing steadily for the past few years, but remains very marginal among individual investors despite the creation of labels indicating approaches that take into account extra-financial criteria. The objective of this article is to understand this difficulty by constructing an analysis grid based on three main elements: the interest and characteristics of a label, the organizations promoting a label, and the competitive dynamics between labels. A longitudinal analysis based on these elements allows us to verify the effectiveness of labeling in structuring a market. The relevance of the approach is illustrated in two mature markets: fair trade and organic agriculture. Our main conclusion regarding SRI is that the expected effect of structuring the market through labelling is still in the making. Two weaknesses are identified. On the one hand, the attributes highlighted by the existing labeling reflect much more the point of view of producers (management companies) than of consumers (investors). On the other hand, SRI is distributed through the network of banks and insurance companies, a network for which the strategic stakes are much lower than those of fair trade or organic farming in the corresponding sectors. It is when the label becomes a commercial issue that the corresponding market gradually acquires its maturity.

Some researchers have recently studied the role of social business and BOP projects as a lever for innovation, or even as a reverse innovation, for multinationals in developed countries. This longitudinal study analyzes in depth the case of a multinational food company and explores the role of social business and BOP (SBOP) projects in the strategic renewal of this company: helping it to be simultaneously more sustainable (in the face of current environmental and social challenges) and competitive. She analyzes the process of this strategic renewal based on SBOP projects and the key factors of success of this renewal. Among them: a double approach ("top down" and "bottom up"), articulated on three levels: individual, collective and organizational. It also highlights the impact of the societal orientation of the projects, as a gas pedal and amplifier of this renewal.

The concept of "Bottom of the Pyramid" suggests that multinational companies can contribute to poverty reduction in emerging countries by developing a dedicated offer for low-income consumers. In order to better understand the validity of this proposition, the thesis focuses on firms' strategies towards this segment and relies on an action research program conducted with the Lafarge Group, at its headquarters and in a subsidiary in Indonesia. It proposes a framework for analyzing corporate strategies that contrasts two forms of approach: an approach that seeks to maintain the firm's legitimacy ("license-to-operate") on the one hand, and a search for commercial opportunities on the other. The thesis shows how Lafarge evolved from the first to the second approach between 2007 and 2010. It analyzes the factors that led to this change and in particular the role played by two pilot housing programs launched in Indonesia as part of the action research, which contributed to the construction of over 800 houses. The thesis then distinguishes between two broad forms of business strategies, contrasting market capture and market creation approaches, and highlights the importance of local market specificities in choosing one or the other. Finally, the thesis analyzes, within the framework of market creation strategies, the conditions under which partnerships between companies and nonprofit organizations are sources of innovation and learning for the firm. It highlights three key elements: the sharing of a common vision between partners, the joint creation of programs and the implementation of intentional learning processes.

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This research proposes to analyze the conditions of implementation of an operational planning system using a notion of economic value. It is based on a theoretical study of some "value-based management" models, as well as on a more empirical analysis of systems implemented in a large French company. The study of the analytical formulation of these first models allowed us to identify the hypotheses on which they are based, and which lead, for some of them, to delimit the conditions of their application. We thus show that these models do not constitute universal criteria for evaluating the activities of firms, but that they are better adapted to certain forms of economic and industrial contexts. Moreover, these models are part of a conception of control that focuses on the ex ante evaluation of operational plans and investments. According to this approach, the definition of relevant decision-making criteria coupled with incentive mechanisms should ensure the convergence of internal resource allocation decisions towards the objective of "value creation" for the company's shareholders. In contrast, the tools put in place in the company studied are focused on the problems of coordination between the company's general management and the managers of the operational divisions. These tools are organized, in particular, around the negotiated construction of a "target period" for each of the activities. A quantification of this target period and of a transition period then authorizes a value calculation. This operational plan is associated with a "value conservation" indicator, in updated terms, which makes it possible to monitor and update these references from one operational planning exercise to the next. The implementation of these tools is also based on a form of modeling of the economic and industrial context of the activities considered, and is part of a relational conception of planning and control.

The thesis consists of five articles, three of which are on the external control mechanisms of firms and two on the application of game theory to the study of competition between firms. Chapter 1 studies the financial engineering problem of allocating voting rights among the securities issued by a firm. It is shown that it may be optimal for a firm to issue non-voting securities in the perspective of a takeover bid. Chapter 2 applies the modern theory of delegation, supervision and authority to the external control of a firm. In particular, it is shown that a compromise must be found between supervision by a large shareholder and initiative left to the executive managers of the firm. Chapter 3 studies an optimal financial contract problem in a dynamic setting. It is shown that when the parties (lender and borrower) cannot agree not to renegotiate the current contract, the lender derives zero profit from the relationship. Chapter 4, consisting of two essays, extends the barrier to entry models to the case of dynamic competition between asymmetric firms. It is shown that the entry of a less efficient competitor is likely to be temporary while that of a more efficient competitor is permanent.

Production management methods within companies have undergone a significant evolution following the introduction of techniques based on material flow management (just-in-time). Strategic planning and budgetary control have remained little affected by this evolution, which has mainly affected operational work. The objective of this thesis is to propose an approach to these fields that takes into account this change of perspective. In particular, it is a question of explicitly introducing the notions of material flows (and the interdependencies between services that result from them) and information flows (and the learning possibilities that can be associated with them). The work has two parts. The first part is purely theoretical: we show how Aoki's approach can be made explicit in the context of a dynamic team game by decomposing the decision process into two phases (centralized planning, decentralized operational decisions). This formalization confirms the intuition that horizontal coordination is superior to traditional hierarchical coordination in evolving contexts. The second part is a reflection based on the development of two models in companies. In both cases, the work focuses on the realization of models allowing the clarification of interfaces between services. We then show how these models make it possible to pose the problem of the articulation between the operational follow-up of each service and the overall strategic choices.

The interdependencies between coordination and incentive mechanisms within organizations are still insufficiently explicit. The purpose of this paper is to make progress on this point by combining two approaches: the first, which comes from industrial production management, bases the coordination of the organization's activities on the modeling of the technical flows that cross it. The second is based on a general principle of duality between operations management and human resources management, with the decentralization of the one going hand in hand with the centralization of the other, and vice versa. In the case of information technology, it appears that human resources are at the heart of the technical model, which poses an original and particularly interesting problem. The dynamics of coordination and incentives that are articulated around this reality are explored. Two typical models, built from an international comparative study on banking informatics, allow us to understand the theoretical modalities that this articulation can take. Beyond the elaboration of these models, the thesis illustrates the role of the theoretical construction in a concrete intervention intended to improve the management of banking IT within an organization. An example of an intervention on a transversal coordination problem during which an original steering mode was developed is discussed in detail.

Next to traditional management control, new approaches based on a horizontal vision of the company are currently being developed. Apart from the field of production management where these new approaches have been very successful (mrp, jit), few applications are proposed. The objective of this thesis is to show the feasibility of implementing such approaches. The analysis is carried out in the context of a business game developed from an intervention carried out in a company in the food industry. In conclusion, a formal framework is proposed for controlled planning systems constructed as collective learning tools.