MOUHOUD El Mouhoub

The successes and failures of public policies are, to a large extent, influenced by the political and institutional context of economies. This thesis analyzes how the socioeconomic performance of MENA countries is determined by the institutional and political environment of individual countries. Three essays are proposed. The first examines the impact of skills on productivity using a comparison between two countries, Turkey and Tunisia. The second analyzes the impact of subsidies on the performance of firms. The third studies the effect of trade openness on imports of manufactured goods depending on whether firms are in sectors connected to political power or not, in the case of Egypt.The comparative study between Turkey and Tunisia shows that workers' skills do have a measurable impact on productivity in Turkey, but not in Tunisia. In Turkey, import-substitution industrialization was dismantled relatively early, while in Tunisia post-colonial policy abandoned its import-substitution industrialization policy relatively late. As a result, the high skill level of the labor force in Tunisia has not been able to contribute to productivity, unlike in Turkey. Second, the study of government intervention in the form of subsidies to firms in Tunisia shows that, as expected, subsidies allow governments to extend their control over private firms. This policy has had contrasting effects on Tunisian firms. It has favored employment in small firms, while in large firms it has benefited capital. Finally, the last test concerning the Egyptian economy shows that the reduction of trade barriers has benefited firms in sectors where there is no connection between the state and firms. The reduction in tax and customs evasion favors more competitive firms.

"Binôme" is above all the desire to bring together two individuals evolving in very different environments but passionate about their respective activities. One dedicates his life to writing, the other to research. Binôme is a non-didactic way to discover science, which becomes a fertile source of inspiration for contemporary theater. These two universes, so different at first sight, enrich each other and give life to an original and rich artistic work.

France is among the countries most affected and threatened by deindustrialization. Economic indicators show significant changes in the economic structure of the French economy for many years. The decrease in French industrial employment is undeniable. The manufacturing industry has experienced a sharp decline in the number of employees since 1974 (2,380,967 jobs lost) and a decline in its share of overall value added (11.38% in 2016 compared to 22.4% in 1970). For these reasons, the objective of this thesis is to determine the explanatory factors of this phenomenon, to study the role of innovation in French deindustrialization, and to examine the real and net impact of offshoring on the decline in manufacturing employment.The determinants of deindustrialization in French manufacturing are analyzed using panel data in two subperiods (pre-crisis and post-crisis).Our sample is composed of 9,364 firms observed over the period 2000-2015. The results of both estimations (pre-crisis and post-crisis) confirm a negative impact of labor costs, productivity, export rates, firm size and age on manufacturing employment. The subcontracting rate was insignificant before the crisis and therefore did not explain the variation in employment in our model.however, after the crisis this variable became highly significant (1%) and negatively correlated with the variation in employment.In a second study, the estimation of a CDM model shows that product innovation has a positive and significant impact on industrial employment. However, process innovation seems to have a negative impact on the evolution of employment. In the last part of the thesis, the propensity score matching estimator is applied to measure the real net impact of offshoring on employment decline and to determine the characteristics of the most offshoring firms from a sample of 2270 firms belonging to the manufacturing industry. The results of this estimation show that offshoring contributes more to the decline in industrial employment after the 2008 crisis. Between 2002 and 2007, the net impact of offshoring on employment was an average of 18 jobs lost per firm. In contrast, this impact became much greater in the second period (2008-2014) with an average of 30 jobs lost per company, representing an increase of nearly 67% in the contribution of offshoring to the loss of industrial jobs within companies. The companies that relocate the most are: exporters, older, large, innovative, they belong more often to the automotive and capital goods sectors, they have R&D activities in cooperation with European, Indian or Chinese entities.Regarding the motivations for relocation, the companies that relocate the most are those who are looking for relatively lower wages, more advantageous taxation and regulation, to get closer to dynamic and growing markets....

At a time when the effects of globalization are provoking a demand for protection of workers and territories and encouraging governments to promote national production, here is a precise analysis of the logic, scope and real effects of corporate globalization. Multinational firms are seeking access to dynamic markets in the form of direct investments abroad and are also looking for favorable production cost conditions by developing relocation operations in the form of international subcontracting or outsourcing. What are the effects of offshoring on employment, trade and the technological advantages of industrialized countries? Is the international fragmentation of the value chain of labor-intensive industries challenged by rising transport and wage costs in emerging countries? How can we explain the opposite movement of relocation of activities?

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Since the end of labor migration in 1974, the costs of emigration have been borne by the migrants themselves. These exorbitant costs and the restrictive and selective policies of the destination countries explain why nowadays the people who manage to emigrate are not from poor countries and are much more qualified. Yet, paradoxically, migration promotes trade and development in countries of origin.

While economic studies generally conclude that there is little impact from offshoring at the macroeconomic level, offshoring generates significant asymmetric shocks at the local level, which it is important to accurately anticipate. This is what this study is about, with the construction of an original indicator of territories’ vulnerability to the risks of offshoring manufacturing activity. Firstly, the factors of vulnerability are identified at a fine‑grained level of activity. Using principal‑component analysis at the sector level, four types of manufacturing industry sectors are brought out according to their potential for offshoring, which is a function of the characteristics of their jobs and their content in routine tasks, and product characteristics.Then, following the approach Aubert and Sillard (2005) implemented on data by establishment, an index of actual offshoring at the sector level is estimated. This makes it possible both to characterise the risk of offshoring in the four main types of sectors and to measure the economic vulnerability of employment zones.

The back cover states: "At a time when globalization is provoking a demand for protection of workers and territories and encouraging governments to promote national production, here is an analysis of the logic and effects of the internationalization of companies and the relocation of activities. Multinationals seek first of all access to dynamic markets in the form of direct investment abroad. They also seek favorable production cost conditions by developing relocation operations in the form of international subcontracting. What are the effects of offshoring on the competitiveness, employment, trade and technological advantages of formerly industrialized countries? Is the international fragmentation of the value chain of labor-intensive industries challenged by rising transport and wage costs in emerging countries? Can we really speak of "de-globalization"? This book answers these questions by mobilizing recent theoretical and empirical analyses".

This thesis proposes to study the role of heterogeneity among multinational firms in their foreign direct investment (FDI) strategies. While previous works emphasize the importance of individual firm productivity in becoming a multinational, few mention the remaining heterogeneity among these firms to explain differences in entry mode choice or foreign location motive. Through innovative theoretical and empirical approaches, based on the use of confidential data from French firms, we show that firm heterogeneity determines each of the three strategic aspects detailed in this thesis: the rate of foreign control, the motive for setting up abroad and the structure of the network of subsidiaries. Specifically, firm productivity and experience favor greater control of foreign subsidiaries, with their relative importance depending on the host country. These characteristics are also associated with deeper integration into global value chains, as well as with the formation of a more original network of locations. These results provide a better understanding of multinationals' choices, beyond the apparent complexity of FDI flows.

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The back cover states: "Who are the international migrants? How many really arrive each year in rich countries? Does France really receive "all the misery of the world"? How much do migrants cost the public finances of the host countries? Do they take "our" jobs? The erroneous statements, repeated knowingly or unknowingly, about immigration and its effects, persist and are reinforced in times of crisis, today as in the 1930s. Can we hope to understand and deal with the issue of immigration if the most implausible allegations are not debunked, if fantasies and not reality feed the public debate? The figures exist, as well as their analysis and lessons, based on concordant studies carried out in different countries. Why ignore them? Far from advocating for or against migration or migrants, this book attempts to answer these sometimes disturbing, always precise questions. E. M. Mouhoud identifies fifteen myths that parasitize the public debate on migration and allow certain political leaders to defend theses that are both anxiety-provoking and inaccurate. This book provides concrete proposals and avenues of reflection for a truly effective and fair policy.

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While economic studies generally conclude that offshoring has little impact at the macroeconomic level, it does generate significant asymmetric shocks for territories that must be anticipated. This is the challenge of this study, which constructs an original indicator of the vulnerability of territories to the risks of relocation in manufacturing activities. First of all, the vulnerability factors are identified at a fine level of activities. A principal component analysis at this sectoral level makes it possible to identify four types of manufacturing industry sectors according to their potential for relocation, depending on the characteristics of their jobs and their content in routine tasks and product characteristics. Then, following the approach of Aubert and Sillard (2005) implemented on establishment data, an index of effective offshoring at the sectoral level is estimated. It allows us to characterize the risk of offshoring in the four main types of sectors and to measure the economic vulnerability of employment areas.

The objective of this thesis is to study the growth and economic development of emerging countries through Foreign Direct Investment. Emerging countries adopt strategies to attract FDI, which then promotes the assimilation of the technological transfers they carry. These strategies are based on several points: increased regulation, establishment of a system of good governance, strengthening of macroeconomic stability, and development of infrastructure and human capital. We focus on MENA countries that have recently undergone profound political and social changes. These are countries that Western Europe would benefit from accompanying, to ensure the success of this transitional phase. This is why we take the example of the CEEC countries after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Western European countries after the Second World War. From the 1980s onward, following the collapse of oil prices, which had major consequences on their fragile economies, MENA countries tried to diversify their economies. In the first chapter, we show the nature of the channels through which the effects of FDI on the growth of emerging countries are realized. According to recent theories of economic growth, the policies of attracting FDI carried out by emerging countries constitute a driving force for growth, as long as these countries possess human capital capable of absorbing the technologies and know-how conveyed by FDI. In the second chapter, we use various empirical methods to establish the determinants of FDI. Using regional comparisons, we focus, in particular, on the short-term institutional determinants. Based on a gravity model in the third and fourth chapters, we then highlight the key determinants of FDI in Central and Eastern European countries (CEE), as well as possible differences in the behavior of foreign investors towards the former EU-15 and the CEE countries, ten years after the enlargement of the European Community. We thus show a shift both in the geographical orientation of investors and in their motivations. We therefore do not observe a convergence of the determinants of the CEECs towards those of the EU-15. On the other hand, the effect of tax competition tends to spread in the strategies of firms from the CEEC to the whole of the European Union. This coincides with the onset of the crisis, which has led to greater volatility in FDI flows. In the fifth chapter, we analyze the long-term institutional determinants of FDI in the MENA region. We highlight a range of institutional indicators to identify their relative importance on FDI flows after controlling for macroeconomic determinants. We take into account the effects of economic downturns, mainly due to recessions and economic crises. Our results indicate that institutional indicators are positively related to FDI. Finally, in the sixth chapter, and for the same region, we examine the relationship between economic growth, FDI, exports, labor force and capital investment. As this relationship remains one of the most important issues in the economic literature, it is receiving renewed interest, mainly for MENA countries, which suffer from social, economic, and technological problems. Using the ARDL approach, we finally show that there is a cointegration relationship between these variables, both in the long run and in the short run.

This thesis is a micro-econometric study that aims to investigate the relationship between innovation, e-commerce and productivity. In order to achieve this objective, this work aims to identify the structure of firms that practice online sales. The present thesis is essentially composed of three studies in which statistical data are exploited that concern French companies of all sizes (micro, small, medium and large). The databases were constructed from the ICT and e-commerce, CIS, R&D and FARE surveys. The FARE survey provides additional financial statistics. The first study aims to determine the impact of e-commerce on productivity using a panel of data from 2008 to 2012. The data is analyzed using the Cobb-Douglas production function. The results show that e-commerce has a positive and significant impact on productivity during this period. Thus, e-commerce contributes to promoting the productivity of French companies. The second study aims to understand the motivations that drive microenterprises to adopt online sales and to evaluate their productivity. In this study, the Propensity Score Matching method is used. To evaluate the differences in productivity between, on the one hand, microenterprises that practice online sales and, on the other hand, those that do not use the e-commerce tool for the year 2012. The results show that the turnover generated by the microenterprises practicing online sales is higher, and they show a better productivity in comparison with the enterprises that do not practice it. The third objective is to determine the impact of R&D and innovation in ICT, especially e-commerce, on the performance of French firms in 2008. A variant of the CDM model (Crépon, Duguet and Mairesse) is applied. This study describes the link between R&D spending, e-commerce, innovation and productivity. The results show that R&D is an important factor for innovation, and ICT capital is also a key factor for e-commerce. Moreover, although both factors (R&D output specifically technological product/process innovations and e-commerce), positively affect productivity, the positive impact is more pronounced for innovation.

This paper looks at the determinants of South-South remittances. An original dataset of African migrants living in Johannesburg is used. As South Africa attracts both economic and forced migrants, we focus on the impact of the reason of emigration (violence versus economic concerns) on migrants’ remittance behaviour. On the extensive margin, the results show that leaving a home country for reasons of violence decreases the probability of remitting to the home country. On the intensive margin, transferred amounts do not differ according to whether the migrant was forced to migrate or not. When the migrant has decided to remit, it is more his/her current conditions in the host country and traditional factors (income, education, sex, etc.) that determine the amounts transferred. Our results are robust when restricting the definition of forced migration.

The paper seeks to analyze the relationship between migrants' remittances and educational attendance in rural areas of southern Morocco. We perform a probit model to assess whether children who live in recipient households are more likely to attend school than their counterparts in other types of households. We find that the receipt of remittances has a significant positive effect on school attendance, especially for boys. The findings may be of interest to other developing countries and to the relevant policy makers, as the results suggest that migrants' remittance may serve as a channel for investing in human capital in such recipient countries and that the gains are much greater for boys, contributing to higher gender inequalities in access to education in rural areas.

In the past 50 years, the MENA region has been integrated to the world economy through two main channels: the sale of oil, and labor migration. Labor migration, in retrospect, acted as the main way to redistribute oil revenues from the oil exporting to the importing countries, especially those in the Mashrek region, greatly benefitting millions of households. The migration of mostly unskilled workers from the Maghreb to Europe, during its period of fast growth, played a similar role. But migration will almost certainly never again boom as it did in the past.

Since the mid-1970s, the amounts transferred by migrants to their countries of origin have grown steadily. They represent more than twice the amount of official development assistance (ODA) and have surpassed foreign direct investment to developing countries outside the BRICs. This article takes stock of migrant savings transfers, examines the determinants of these transfers and, above all, their macroeconomic effects on growth and their microeconomic effects on poverty, inequality and the education of children in the migrants' countries of origin. While recent studies highlight ambiguous macroeconomic effects, the microeconomic effects appear undeniably positive. It also appears that the decision of migrants to return or not to return to their country of origin plays a determining role. Finally, the issue of remittances is still relatively absent from economic policy debates in the countries of origin, even though it raises major problems.

This thesis aims to analyze and identify the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the French labor market. The first chapter reviews the recent literature on this issue. The other chapters analyze empirically and theoretically the effect of FDI on the labor market. Using recent and detailed data on French firms and employees, several aspects of the labor market are addressed. First, the thesis analyzes the effect of FDI on employment (chapter 2), and then focuses on its effect on French wages (chapter 3). Chapter 4 identifies a potential channel through which FDI could affect the labor market. This channel is organizational change within the parent company. Finally, chapter 5 identifies the consequences of organizational change in terms of labor mobility within multinational firms. The results show a selective effect of FDI on employment and wages. Only FDI to a low-wage country affects the labor market and only managers are positively impacted by firms' foreign location strategies. Employment seems to be the adjustment variable at the extensive margin, while wages adjust at the intensive margin. FDI is also responsible for an organizational change within the parent company, causing a shift of authority from the head of the firm to the managers on the one hand, and an increase in the mobility of skilled workers within the firm on the other.

This article analyzes the effect of outward foreign direct investment (FDI) on the workforce composition in French firms. We use a detailed employer-employee database constructed with four comprehensive datasets of French manufacturing firms over the period 2002–2007, in order to analyze changes in the workforce composition in terms of skills and tasks. To deal with endogeneity issues, we propose an IV strategy where the level of infrastructure and GDP per capita in the host countries are used as instruments. The fixed effect results show that FDI to low-income countries raises significantly the share of executives and reduces the share of blue-collar workers in company workforces in France. Outward FDI to high-income countries affects negatively the share of workers performing non-routine manual tasks. When controlling for endogeneity, the IV results further show an overall positive effect of offshoring for employees performing interactive and analytical tasks, such as engineers and managers.

In this paper, using an original survey, we analyze the distributional impact of international migration across two regions of Algeria. A semi-parametric descriptive analysis is complemented with a parametric model. Remittances do not significantly change the Gini coefficient in nearly any of the counterfactual scenarios. However, migration reduced poverty by 40 percent, with different effects across regions for extreme poverty. Foreign transfers, especially foreign pensions, have a strong positive impact on very poor families in one region. Poor families in the other region suffer from a “double loss”: their migrants do not provide local income and they do not send much money home.

At a time when the effects of globalization are provoking a demand for protection of workers and territories and encouraging governments to promote national production, here is a precise analysis of the logic, scope and real effects of corporate globalization. Multinational firms are seeking access to dynamic markets in the form of direct investments abroad and are also looking for favorable production cost conditions by developing relocation operations in the form of international subcontracting or outsourcing. What are the effects of offshoring on employment, trade and the technological advantages of industrialized countries? Is the international fragmentation of the value chain of labor-intensive industries challenged by rising transport and wage costs in emerging countries? How can we explain the opposite movement of relocation of activities?

No summary available.

Where does globalization lead the economy? In an attempt to answer this question, the authors extend the insights of the economist Charles-Albert Michalet by analyzing the spaces of globalization: global finance, stock exchanges, world trade - that "imperialism in reverse" -, European protectionist pressures, and the globalization of intellectual property. It is also about understanding how the main actors of globalization, the States and the Firms, overcome and maintain the crisis. Indeed, the competition between states to attract foreign investors feeds this crisis despite national innovation policies. For their part, firms, whose strategies are now part of a global reorganization of industry and services, are accentuating the flow of relocations and the relocation of activities. At the same time, new firms from the "South" are bursting into the world. The labor force must thus adapt to a new situation that goes from the financialization of firms to the individualization of remuneration.

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The strengths and weaknesses of territories in the face of globalization have too often been assessed in terms of their industrial activities, leading to support policies in response to the difficulties of this sector, without, however, curbing the deindustrialization of regions. The role of services as a regional driving force has been generally neglected. This article analyzes the situation of Haute-Normandie, which is industrialized and affected by the crisis, and studies the specialization of its employment areas in services based on a recent typology of services (DATAR, 2010). Strengths appear (low specialization in the most volatile services, weight of intermediation services). Three angles of potential vulnerability are nonetheless of concern: a significant weight of collective services in a national context of geographic redistribution . a low share of cognitive services . specialization in the most volatile services in the most industrialized zone (Bresle Valley).

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This article analyses the distributional impact of remittances across two regions of Algerian emigration (Nedroma and Idjeur) using an original survey we conducted of 1,200 households in 2011. Remittances and especially the role played by foreign pensions decrease the Gini index by nearly 4 % for the two Algerian regions, with the effect in Idjeur being twice as large as Nedroma. At the same time, they help reduce poverty by nearly 13 percentage points. Remittances have a strong positive impact on very poor families in Idjeur but much less in Nedroma, where poor families suffer from a "double loss" due to the absence of their migrants and the fact that the latter do not send money home.

Remittances have become an important source of financing for developing countries. The first objective of this thesis is to explain the individual motivations behind remittances. The second is to measure their impact on household welfare, as measured by the level of monetary and human poverty. We find that these flows reduce the number of poor and vulnerable households. They may also increase income inequality compared to the counterfactual situation of no migration. We find that remittances positively influence parents' decision to send their children to school, especially if they are male. The third objective of this thesis is to examine return migration. We will show the role of certain socio-demographic and economic factors in making the return decision.

This research studies remittances made by migrants in the case of migration between developing countries. Using recent and original data on various African countries, it seeks to (i) provide a general overview of African migration and remittances, (ii) analyze the impact of departure conditions on the transfer behavior of migrants, (iii) study the uses of remittances made in the case of forced migration, and more generally South-South migration, and (iv) establish whether there are differences in behavior depending on the migrants' destination countries (developed or developing countries). The results show that the conditions of departure play a determining role in the decision to transfer migrants and that South-South remittances are largely used to finance current expenses. They also show that South-South and South-North remittance behavior differs slightly.

This thesis analyzes the inability of the U.S. government to change its immigration policy in any significant way. It shows that its main explanatory factor is institutional: the resilience of the immigration system, understood as a mode of regulating the admission of immigrants, is explained by its capacity to rely on a structuring of the political economy of immigration that is conducive to blocking reforms. To demonstrate this proposition, our study is therefore articulated in two blocks: the factors generating a crisis in the regime, and those allowing its status quo. First, the structural and conjunctural factors of the regime's crisis are studied. An empirical analysis of the regulation of immigration highlights its two structural dysfunctions: on the one hand, a growing imbalance between the number of applicants for immigration and the supply of visas, and on the other, the formation of a stock of illegal residents. Nevertheless, an analysis of the American population's perceptions of this regulation shows that the desire to reform immigration admission conditions is also based on subjective factors. A deteriorating economic situation intensifies the perception of a crisis in the system, and the preference for its closure. In a second step, the explanatory factors of the absence of closure of the regime are analyzed. The validity of two explanatory hypotheses for its resilience is demonstrated by an analysis of reform episodes from 1994 to 2010. First, the political implementation of a reform gives primacy to the preferences of organized interest groups (immigrant communities, employers, unions, nativists) over those of public opinion. Second, the antagonistic preferences of these interest groups make them unable to cooperate: despite its non-optimality, the immigration regime therefore corresponds to a stable outcome of legislative negotiations, because it limits the losses of all the actors involved.

This thesis analyzes access to European and Moroccan agricultural markets to better assess the effects of agricultural trade liberalization. It proposes a disaggregated and global approach to the determinants of trade through a gravity model. The first chapter discusses the debate and controversy surrounding the liberalization of agricultural trade under the association agreements between Morocco and the EU. It looks at the two subsectors that represent the challenges of opening up: the fruit and vegetable subsector and the cereal subsector. The second looks at the approach used to measure access to European and Moroccan markets. It reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on gravity models. The third presents the database of European market protection levels for fruit and vegetables, by product and by trading partner. It has been constructed to include all trade barriers. The fourth measures the impact of agricultural trade liberalization on EU fruit and vegetable imports and on Moroccan cereal imports. The border effect methodology was used to study the impact of other barriers to trade, once distance and tariffs were controlled. Our results suggest that market access does not depend solely on the influence of tariffs. Other barriers to trade, such as non-tariff barriers, may also limit market access. For Morocco, our results show that trade liberalization would have limited effects on EU imports of fruit and vegetables from Morocco and on Morocco's imports of cereal products. On the one hand, EU imports from Morocco are sensitive to tariffs compared to other trade barriers. Trade liberalization within the sector will therefore have a positive impact on Moroccan fruit and vegetable exports. However, this effect would be limited since other barriers to trade remain, once distance and tariffs are controlled. On the other hand, Moroccan cereal imports are not very sensitive to tariff elasticities. In contrast, non-tariff barriers appear to have a negative impact on Moroccan grain imports. Overall, the impact of potential agricultural trade liberalization is limited.

This thesis proposes a theoretical and empirical reflection on the implication of implicit knowledge exchanges (or externalities) on the technological performance of countries. Two categories of externalities are taken into account: "similarity" externalities and "difference" externalities. The theoretical contribution would be to construct a model in which externalities of difference would act simultaneously with externalities of similarity. The objective is to show how knowledge externalities manage to account for several phenomena linked in one way or another to international specialization in a knowledge economy. In particular, the proposed evolutionary model provides a theoretical explanation for the diversification of territories that is largely neglected in the literature. Empirically, our main work is in line with the geography of innovation. In addition to highlighting the impact of externalities on the capacity for innovation, our estimates confirm the capacity of sectors without comparative advantage (SAC) to generate positive intersectoral externalities. Thus, diversification in sectors without a comparative advantage (SAC) is transformed from a "harmful" and "involuntary" phenomenon into a "beneficial" and "intentional" phenomenon likely to encourage proactive policies for the capture of externalities. In general, by distinguishing externalities according to technological and geographic dimensions, our results allow us to draw the contours of an efficient innovation policy that takes into account technological complementarities and geographic environment. Thus, our thesis proposes an overall vision of the "externalities" phenomenon. It highlights the explanatory potential of externalities in understanding the dynamics of international specialization. Similarly, it allows us to understand why certain types of externalities have a stronger impact on innovation capacity than others.

The literature on asset-seeking FDI ignores the role of lead users. The thesis, through two game theory models, shows the impact of lead users on the trade-off between FDI and exports. All else being equal, according to the first model, FDI is more profitable in a supply-driven innovation, to learn about the advanced needs of lead users, but the higher the risk of product misspecification with respect to local needs. The probability of misspecification increases with the radicalness of the technology and the difference between the usage environment of the two countries. According to the second model, the "lead user" revealing his innovation attracts FDI by increasing the tacit knowledge embedded in the innovation. To push the investor to develop the innovation, the lead user maximizes the generality of the innovation and its tacit component. If the multinational has a high level of specific assets, an arrangement will give it an advantage over its potential competitors. For a Pareto equilibrium, the investor maximizes the improvement he brings to the innovation and favors the "lead user" over other users. In Egypt, there are barriers between the willingness to adopt information and communication technology (ICT) and its actual adoption. Subsidiaries integrated into local innovation networks are helping to bridge the digital divide in terms of usage. Interviews with e-government leaders show that the government willing to disseminate ICTs can become an innovative "lead user.

This thesis focuses on migrant remittances to Turkey. The country's migration dynamics and the main determinants of remittances are analyzed at the micro and macro levels. The contribution of the thesis is to exploit two new surveys conducted in France, in order to better understand the remittance behavior of migrants. First and second generation migrants are studied separately. Private and collective transfers are also analyzed independently. While loan repayment does not play a role in the decision to remit at the micro level, altruism and exchange motivation are confirmed. Instead, collective remittances are determined by feelings of attachment to the country of origin, intention to return, and membership in community networks. At the macro level, both consumption and investment motives are determinant.

This thesis develops and uses a new panel database compiling stocks and rates of emigration to the 6 main OECD receiving countries, by level of education for 172 countries of origin, between 1975 and 2000. Using this new database, we show that skilled migration has indeed increased over the last 30 years, but that this phenomenon is part of a global increase in mobility and a general increase in skill levels. This database also allows us to observe that, contrary to what is emphasized in the traditional literature, significant inequalities in migrants' countries of origin generate an increase in skilled emigration relative to unskilled emigration. Moreover, this basis allows us to demonstrate that a gain from emigration is possible in the poorest countries of origin, provided that skilled emigration rates are not too high. From this point of view, the projections of "brain drain" rates by 2050 show us that an increase in "selected" immigration policies in the main European receiving countries could be extremely harmful for the migrants' sending countries.

Tertiarization, industrial agglomeration, and increasing integration are well-known phenomena in developed countries. However, studies on the spatial distribution of activities rarely include the role of services. We show that knowledge-intensive business services show a higher level of agglomeration than other service industries. We then jointly study the determinants of the location of industries and advanced services within a model of geographic economy. We measure the extent of backward and forward linkages between these two differentiated sectors and show that advanced services are less dependent on industrial location than industrial firms are on these services. In addition, we analyze the historical evolution of the location behavior of the two sectors with the transition from so-called industrial economies to "post-industrial" economies.

This thesis examines the consequences of the completion of the Single Market and the enlargement of the European Union (EU) in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI), its role and impact on international specialization. The analysis of the determinants of FDI shows that the Single Market has contributed to making the EU an attractive area where factors of market access and infrastructure availability prevail and favor the polarization of FDI in the center of Europe. FDI is a potential force for rebalancing and reducing asymmetries between countries, but its scope is geographically limited. Measuring the degree and content of specialization in the enlarged EU shows the existence of several sources of asymmetries in productive structures. Finally, the impact of FDI is far from identical, and the maintenance of strong asymmetries in the activity structures of member countries is a realistic hypothesis.

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of the diffusion of the new technological paradigm (based on information technology) on international specialization and localization. Developed countries can regain their competitive advantages in labor-intensive and energy-intensive basic sectors. The resulting processes of reindustrialization and respecialization help to curb the trend toward delocalization to low-wage countries. Industrial relocation to the home country of multinational firms is accelerating in countries that are rapidly diffusing these new techniques. The gains from relocation can be offset by economies of variety and better adaptation to rapid fluctuations in demand. Sectoral analysis shows, however, that there are both decomposition movements in the productive processes of some sectors and opposite recomposition movements in others. An analysis in terms of the spectrum of techniques for a given good helps to explain these contradictory phenomena. All in all, the new international division of labor expected in the 1970s is limited for the developing countries, which are losing their advantages in terms of wage costs and availability of labor. The questioning of their advantages in the field of natural resources linked to the phenomena of substitution of new biotechnologies for raw materials is likely to set in motion a process of disconnection.