GAUTIE Jerome

This thesis proposes to renew our understanding of the functioning of the labor market by basing it on the recruitment logic of firms. Moreover, the choice is made to adopt a "conventionalist" reading of a "conventional" hypothesis in labor economics: matches between workers and firms are risky and heterogeneous, and the Economics of Conventions raises the problem of defining the quality of these matches. The dissertation consists of two parts of two chapters. The first part - the firm's power to value - is devoted to the internal operation of firms in assigning a value to people, i.e. the evaluation of the candidates they select or the employees they pay. Evaluation during recruitment is analyzed in Chapter 2, while Chapter 1 presents the coherence of the evaluation conventions present in a company that coordinates "its" three markets: product, capital and labor markets. The second part - the form investments of the matching function - highlights the matching activities that take place in the labor market. The intermediaries and channels that "shape" the market (by defining its rules, boundaries and information format) are presented in chapter 3. Finally, Chapter 4 proposes a typology of matching dynamics based on the channels that firms use to address their external market, which implies that they rely on certain form investments rather than others.

This book focuses on populations confronted with the recomposition of employment and work norms at work in recent decades: young generations entering the workforce, migrant workers, workers in gray areas of employment, educated workers in new services confronted with Taylorized and low-wage work, especially in call centers. The book seeks to answer the following two questions: what experiences do these populations have of transformations in the labor market? In return, what can these "worker figures" teach us about the dynamics of the wage relationship and the new segmentations that are taking place within the workforce in France, but also in comparison with the transformations taking place in other countries, including South American countries?

Do headhunters firms improve the matching process, and therefore contribute to the efficiency of the labor market of top executives? Far from being a passive vector, on one hand they contribute to shape companies' specific demand. on the other hand, they initiate the supply of candidates resorting to their networks. Headhunters implement idiosyncratic categories of evaluation in order to fit as well as possible both parties' preferences. If such a type of transaction reduces information costs, it nevertheless produces distortions with regard to the market efficiency. It introduces a bias in favor of mobility between identical jobs (in terms of occupation and industry) and therefore participates to the labor market segmentation, which impedes substitution mechanisms. As a consequence, they contribute to the inflationary pressures that characterize the top executives' labor market.

The back cover states: "Is the minimum wage necessarily the enemy of employment? The polemic does not weaken, especially in France, on this legal threshold whose first forms were introduced more than a century ago to fight against poverty wages. Its mechanisms have long been known, however. Studies conducted by economists in the many countries where it is used show that its introduction or increase can, depending on the situation, have negative, null or positive effects on employment. The empirical results presented here allow us to reflect on the proper use of the minimum wage in our post-industrial societies marked by a growing polarization between an affluent class with high purchasing power and an army of low-wage workers.

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Is the minimum wage necessarily the enemy of employment? The controversy continues unabated, particularly in France, over this legal threshold, the first forms of which were introduced more than a century ago to combat poverty wages. Its mechanisms have long been known, however. Studies conducted by economists in the many countries where it is used show that its introduction or increase can have negative, null or positive effects on employment, depending on the situation. The empirical results presented here allow us to reflect on the proper use of the minimum wage in our post-industrial societies marked by a growing polarization between a wealthy class with high purchasing power and an army of low-wage workers.

This thesis examines the effects of cash transfers on employment in the South African labor market, which is highly segmented between the formal and informal sectors. The first and main chapter shows that an unconditional cash transfer program for mothers has had lasting positive effects on the quality of their jobs. In the long run, mothers receiving the transfer are more likely to be employed in the formal sector. This is a consequence of changes in the way treated mothers seek employment. By giving them the opportunity to remain unemployed for a longer period of time, the unconditional transfer program allows them to seek higher quality jobs. The second chapter examines the employment effects of a reform of South Africa's non-contributory, means-tested public pension system. This reform lowered the retirement age from 65 to 60 for men. It has led to a sharp decline in the participation rate of informal workers, who stop working when they reach 60 and become eligible for the non-contributory pension. On the contrary, workers in the formal sector do not quit their jobs and do not turn to the informal sector to qualify for the retirement pension. Finally, this thesis addresses the issue of the low number of self-employed in South Africa. The final chapter shows that South Africans are not becoming more self-employed in response to cash transfers. This indicates that liquidity constraints are not the main reason for the lack of self-employment in South Africa. This low level of self-employment probably has historical roots related to apartheid. This third chapter examines the potential implications of this explanation, as well as possible future research avenues for a more detailed understanding of this phenomenon.

This thesis studies the relationship between innovation and job quality. Innovation is considered as the main engine of economic growth, but technological changes induce important mutations in employment and work. Innovation is therefore at the heart of many concerns, and is at the center of recommendations made by public authorities and international organizations. Its multiple effects raise more and more questions, since the recent period is marked by an intensification of innovation dynamics, with the emergence of new technological cycles. It is a vector of transformations for employment that must be qualified. This thesis adopts a mainly empirical perspective, while relying on an institutionalist and evolutionist theoretical approach. The quality of employment is considered from a multidimensional perspective, including working conditions, working hours and duration, contractual quality and remuneration. Similarly, innovation is analyzed in its complexity in order to highlight heterogeneous effects according to the forms considered (strategy, type of innovation, degree of rupture and degree of novelty). The results of this study justify the interest of a specific field of study in economics on the links between innovation and job quality. While confirming that some innovations have positive direct effects on the quality of employment, this thesis shows that indirect effects as well as certain forms of innovation diffusion deteriorate the contractual quality of jobs and working conditions. Moreover, although innovation (whatever its form) is often associated with better contractual conditions (salary, stability, etc.), it nevertheless leads to an intensification of the pace and demands of employment. This work formulates a main recommendation in the context of the intensification of innovation dynamics and knowledge-based economic models - while calling for future work and improvement of the available data. In order to avoid a polarization of working conditions and a rise in inequalities, it is necessary to adapt redistribution and regulation systems to cope with the negative indirect effects of the diffusion of innovations.

The 1st chapter presents historical series of Chilean top income shares over a period of half a century, mostly using data from tax statistics and national accounts. The study contradicts evidence based on survey data, according to which inequality has fallen constantly over the past 25 years. Rather, it changes direction, increasing from around the year 2000. Chile ranks as one of the most unequal countries among both OECD and Latin American countries over the whole period of study. The 2nd chapter measures the underestimation of factor income in distributive data. I find that households receive only half of national gross capital income,as opposed to corporations. Due to heterogeneous non-response and misreporting, Surveys only capture 20% of it, vs. 70% of labor income. This understates inequality estimates, which become insensitive to the capital share and its distribution. I formalize this system based on accounting identities. I then compute marginal effects and contributions to changes in fractile shares. The 3rd chapter, presents a method to adjust surveys. These generally fail to capturethe top of the income distribution. It has several advantages over previous ones: it is consistent with standard survey calibration methods. it has explicit probabilistic foundations and preserves the continuity of density functions. it provides an option to overcome the limitations of bounded survey-supports. and it preserves the microdata structure of the survey.

Lifelong learning is an important issue in our societies. After an initial exit from the education system, it can be characterized by a return to study or by access to continuing education. In France, study paths seem to be less and less linear, and young people are encouraged to take advantage of these interruptions to diversify their experiences. They are then, throughout their career, encouraged to train in order to have "the freedom to choose their professional future" as proposed by a recent law. In view of these observations, the purpose of this thesis is to identify the determinants of these returns to training, and to study their value on the labor market. The preliminary chapter, based on a review of the literature, examines the reasons for returning to school or accessing training, as well as the theoretical conditions for their valorisation on the labour market. The analyses in the first empirical chapter are based on Céreq's Génération 98 survey, which interviews graduates of initial training who have been followed for 10 years. Longitudinal knowledge of their educational and professional career paths makes it possible to evaluate the effect of non-linear educational paths on the wages of young graduates, using the instrumental variables method. The latter, despite having a higher than average educational and social profile and sometimes better endowed with social skills, receive a lower salary than the others, all other things being equal. This seems consistent with the hypothesis of a negative signal sent to employers. In a second chapter, these results led us to examine in greater depth the question of how atypical educational paths are valued on the labour market. Using the vignette method, we interviewed recruiters in order to better understand their perception of these paths. More than a thousand fictitious CVs were evaluated by recruiters (according to the probability that they would offer a job interview). Our econometric analyses show that the fact of not specifying the experience lived during temporary interruptions of studies seems to penalize, ceteris paribus. Faced with a lack of information, recruiters would probably not take the risk of hiring a candidate who had experienced a period of inactivity or unemployment. But this strong signal effect is not observed when candidates specify that they have interrupted their studies to travel abroad or to perform civic service.The third chapter seeks to better understand the determinants of reinvestment in training, but this time by employed workers. We use data from the Céreq Defis survey, which is based on a double survey (employees and companies). Our results show that very few contextual variables seem to affect the probability that the employee will want to train. Similarly, access to non-mandatory training, although more influenced by company characteristics, seems to depend mainly on individual variables and job characteristics and significantly increases inequalities in access to training. The use of a double-difference estimator method with matching shows that this training does not seem to be valued in the form of wages.

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The back cover states: "This book is the first in a series of three volumes that aim to cover the main contemporary economic and social issues, at the national, European and global levels. Their particularity is to have been conceived and written by specialists in these issues, recognized academics and researchers, for high school and undergraduate students. The texts gathered here are distinguished by three major qualities: each is a synthesis of the state of scientific knowledge . their clarity and readability make them accessible without compromising their rigor . their problematization gives meaning to the questions addressed and arouses the reader's interest. In order to respond even better to questions about the world and our society, in particular those related to the multiple crises we are facing, the book has not only been updated and revised, but also enriched by new contributions. The issues addressed in this volume: the factors of economic growth . the knowledge economy . the transformations of the world of work . the mutations of employment and the analyses of unemployment . the possibility of a post-growth development.

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This book is the first in a series of three volumes that aim to cover the main contemporary economic and social issues at the national, European and global levels. Their particularity is that they were conceived and written by specialists in these issues - academics and recognized researchers - for high school and undergraduate students. The texts gathered here are distinguished by three major qualities: each is a synthesis of the state of scientific knowledge . their clarity and readability make them accessible without compromising their rigor . their problematization gives meaning to the questions addressed and arouses the reader's interest. In order to better respond to questions about the world and our society, in particular those related to the multiple crises we are facing, the book has not only been updated and revised, but also enriched by new contributions.

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This article traces the economic debates around the minimum wage since the end of the 19th century in the United States, France and the United Kingdom (and its Commonwealth), in their empirical and theoretical dimensions, but also in their methodological and epistemological dimensions. The analysis also integrates a historical sociology of science approach, aiming to recontextualize these debates according to the modes of articulation of the academic sphere with three other spheres: the political sphere, the administrative sphere, and the sphere of civil society and the economic and social world. Three periods are distinguished - around the First World War, from the 1940s to the 1980s, and since the early 1990s.

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Since it was introduced in 1950, and even more since it was reformed in 1970, the statutory minimum wage has been playing a key role in the French labor market. It has very specific fixing mechanisms, and from the eighties, it has been one of the highest among the OECD countries - both in relative and absolute terms. After presenting the specific features of the minimum wage setting regime in France as well as the minimum wage policies implemented since the 1950s, we provide a comprehensive survey of existing empirical evidence on the impacts of the minimum wage on the French labor market. We use a meta-analysis to draw the lessons from the empirical studies on its effects on employment. We also survey the other potential effects, such as the impact on wage bargaining and other wages, on inequalities, on profit and prices, on working conditions.

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The purpose of this thesis is to analyze inequalities in the educational pathways of young people on the one hand, and their repercussions on employment on the other. Indeed, inequalities in integration are increasing, not only between holders of different diplomas, but also between those who are comparable. In order to explain the determinants of individual choices in a context of queuing, we mobilize an original socioeconomic approach based on the concepts of Sen and Bourdieu to describe the opportunity spaces available to young people. Such an approach requires, in the first part, a critical review of the usual theories of supply. Demand-side theories offer a more complete account of the characteristics of jobs, but are limited in explaining the role of educational pathways on access to employment. The conceptualizations of Sen and Bourdieu are then combined to explain situations of social reproduction and non-reproduction. In the second part, the analyses focus primarily on the career paths of science graduates after obtaining a general degree. The weighting of career paths by economic and cultural capital makes it possible to characterize the elements that counteract or reinforce a reproduction that is nonetheless dominant. Investigations into the pathways are extended to include the dropout rate, based on the Génération 2010 data. A reading in terms of capabilities illustrates its protean nature and the influence of social background. The last part extends the perspective to the transition to the labor market. This time, the social weighting is applied to higher education exit trajectories, which do not produce the same effects on employment capabilities according to social background. Finally, the investigations into the support systems for integration suggest that they can facilitate transitions but struggle to reduce inequalities.

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This thesis deals with work in Cooperative and Participative Societies (SCOP). Through the study of this model, an in-depth analysis of inequalities at work in the companies is proposed through the wage structure and the distribution of the costs of adjustment of the activity. The thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter compares the distribution of wages in SCOPs and in conventional firms (CEs), by estimating wage equations from the DADS database. The second chapter completes the first one by proposing a detailed analysis of the agents' discourse (with the help of 53 interviews carried out in 38 SCOPs of the Rhône-Alpes region) allowing to identify the principles of justice at work in the determination of the wage structures highlighted in the first chapter. The third chapter proposes an econometric analysis of the differential adaptation of SCOPs and CEs to demand shocks, through adjustments in employment, wages and hours worked. The fourth chapter explores the possibility of significant diversity among SCOPs, notably in access to membership, which could have an impact on employment adjustments. The contribution of this thesis to the economic debate can be summarized in three points. Firstly, it is the first major quantitative comparative analysis of SCOPs and CEs concerning employment and its characteristics. Secondly, the qualitative survey on which we rely, carried out in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Grenoble, is also unique since it is the first qualitative survey of this magnitude. Its exploitation thus allows an analysis of the discourse of the members of the SCOP which had not been realized before. Finally, our positioning is also original, mobilizing approaches usually put in opposition by making them really discuss around an object whose understanding is enriched.

Since the second half of the 1970s, unemployment has been at the heart of French economic and social news, punctuated by the periodic publication of the number of jobseekers, each increase or decrease of which is commented on. It has become the obsession of all governments, which navigate between a declared voluntarism and a misguided fatalism. The crisis that began in 2008 has resulted in a new aggravation. However, mass unemployment is not inevitable: France has experienced periods of significant decline in the number of unemployed since the second half of the 1990s and, when we look at other industrialized countries, including in Europe, some have very low unemployment rates, sometimes below 5%. How can we understand the controversy surrounding "unemployment figures", which resurface periodically? What are the factors behind unemployment and why does it persist? Why are some countries much more successful in containing it than others? What are the policies to reduce it? The facts, the theories, the policies: this book is a unique synthesis.

The problems of employment and unemployment have returned to the forefront since the crisis that began in 2008 (the "Great Recession"), including in countries where the apparent unemployment rate has returned to a relatively low level. The objective of this paper is to provide a theoretical and empirical review based on three cross-cutting themes: the question of measuring labor market performance and indicators, to emphasize the need for an approach that goes beyond the unemployment rate alone; the need to confront economic theories with the test of a particularly important crisis, the consequences of which are still sensitive; the importance of forward-looking thinking on employment in a context of intense technological change.

The contribution of this thesis is to examine the evolution of job quality from an establishment perspective. It is based on linked employer-employee data from the comparable Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS 2004 and 2011) for Great Britain and Relations Professionnelles et Négociations d'Entreprise (REPONSE 2005 and 2011) for France. This thesis contains three chapters and adds to three main strands of existing literature. The first chapter explores the impact of establishment-level adjustment practices on job quality in France during the crisis. The second chapter analyzes the role of the institutional regime in France and Great Britain in explaining the variation in job quality between the two countries. Finally, the third chapter examines the strategies adopted by employees to cope with their wages and working conditions.

The basic idea behind incentive contracts is the realization of common interests that lead to changes in employee behavior and improved company performance. The results and success of the company also depend on the climate of industrial relations. In this context, the objective of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of financial participation (profit-sharing and employee shareholding) and its links with conflicts based on data from French companies. Research on these two themes is of practical and innovative importance. First of all, there are many different types of conflicts within the firm. We are primarily interested in collective conflicts. Second, most studies of collective conflict focus only on strikes, ignoring other forms of collective action, and very few studies make the link to collective incentive systems within the firm. Thus, this work is divided into four empirical studies. The first one aims at analyzing the different forms of conflicts within the firm. The second study analyzes the effect of financial participation on collective conflicts. The third study looks at the impact of negotiation and financial participation on the resolution of collective conflicts. Finally, the last study examines the performance of firms as a function of financial participation and collective conflict. Our research relies on multidimensional and econometric analysis tools. The multidimensional approach uses Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Ascending Hierarchical Classification, while the econometric approach uses classical estimation methods (OLS, Simple Probit, Multinomial Probit, Ordered Probit), selection models (Heckman), and recursive models with simultaneous equations to deal with endogeneity problems and the mixture (quantitative and qualitative) of the dependent variables (Roodman, Conditional Mixed Process)

While the bulk of the working poor - and the poor - live in developing and emerging countries, it is in wealthy countries, where there are almost no working poor according to the World Bank absolute poverty threshold, that working poverty has been construed as a specific social issue. This reflects that, in rich countries, working poverty is considered as a paradox: those who work (enough) should be able to avoid poverty. Yet working enough is not systematically sufficient to escape poverty. But in the first place, both the notions of “working” and “poverty” raise conceptual and measurement issue. The chapter starts with a look at the diversity of statistical definitions which reflects both conceptual issues and national specificities in the labor market functioning and social protection systems. It then proposes an assessment of the factors impacting on working poverty both at individual and household level, before turning to public policies aimed at “making work pay” to reduce poverty – including minimum wage, inwork benefits and activation policies.

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The notion of “social model” is quite familiar in the French social and political debate. Its main pillars date back to the aftermath of WWII, as they were defined, in their big lines, by the political program of the Resistance movement (the Conseil National de la Résistance, which federated the opponents to the German occupation and the Vichy regime). The Social Security System was created in 1945, a new status for the Civil Service adopted in 1946, the legal minimum wage introduced in 1950, while the freedom of collective bargaining and social dialogue was officially restored, and the regulation of the labour market was progressively reinforced up to the late seventies. Since then, the attachment to the “modèle social français” has been widespread among the French population – as illustrated, for instance, by huge demonstrations and strikes to oppose reforms such as in 1995 (concerning the pension system in the public sector) or 2006 (attempt to introduce a new labour contract), when the governments had to withdraw the contested reforms. Even if some political discourses may have referred to the so-called "neo-liberal" agenda, frontal attacks on the social model have remained limited. Even, if President Sarkozy denounced the rigidities and unsustainability of the French social model when he was elected in 2007, when the crisis did come, he acknowledged that this model had protected France from deeper economic and social turmoil. Nevertheless, several reforms have been implemented, and the French social model has undergone some important changes. One may identify three main drivers of the changes that have occurred since the beginning of the 2000s. The first driver was the fight against mass unemployment. Since the mid-1980s, the unemployment rate in France never fell below 7.4% (the lowest level, reached in 2008). Beyond traditional labour market policies - that have played an important role since the beginning of the eighties - a consensus had emerged, from the early nineties, for giving the priority to the lowering of the labour costs of low skilled / low paid jobs, but without impacting the purchasing power of the legal minimum wage (the so-called "SMIC"), a cornerstone of the French social model. Other strategies were much more controversial (such as the reduction in the weekly working-time to 35 hours). From the 2000s, the new agenda consisted in reforming the labour market functioning, as well as adapting the rules of social dialogue, to facilitate these reforms. The second driver was the difficulties and failures of the Social Insurance System. The issue of financial sustainability was raised by the increasing deficit- mainly due to pensions, because of demographic reasons, and health, with spending growing faster than GDP. But another priority was also to plug the holes of the system – i.e. to cover the increasing number of those excluded or ill-covered by social insurance. The third driving factor was the attempt to reduce public deficits. Since the beginning of the eighties, France had never experienced a balanced public budget. The issue was also about the sustainability of the whole system, in a context of declining fiscal resources due to cuts in taxes on high incomes and business benefits. Curbing public spending became a high priority in 2007 with the election of President Sarkozy, and even more unavoidable when crisis of public debts broke up in 2011. In Section 2 we present the main features and specificities of the French Social Model. In section 3, we analyze the main reforms and changes and their consequences in four fields: social dialogue and industrial relations. labour market regulations and policies. social protection and redistribution. public sector and public service delivery. Section 4 documents and analyses two specific case studies– the first on the minimum wage as the pillar of the inclusive wage policy, the second on the reforms of social dialogue and industrial relations in the 2000s. Section 5 summarizes the arguments and findings, and raises some policy issues.

Motivated by the conviction that economics and sociology must meet, our research has two objectives. It questions the theoretical filiations (or conceptual migrations) between economics and sociology on the one hand, and to analyze the characteristics of these theoretical filiations on the other hand. As the dialogue between economics and sociology has increased since the 1960s, are theoretical filiations between the two disciplines possible? And what are their characteristics? Our research is based on the study of a case, that of the theory of action. More precisely, we approach different objects of this vast theory: the theory of rational choice, the field of economics of conventions and the concept of embedding. The study reveals that theoretical filiations between economics and sociology are possible, are not systematic and can be "imperfect".

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The European Employment Strategy (EES) is a key pillar of risk management at the European level. It was first introduced to cope with the risk of unemployment, and extended later to the risk of non-employment, with an increasing focus on activation and the need for maximising the employment rate of the working age population. But since the beginning of the 1990s, the qualitative dimension of employment growth has also become a cause for concern at the European level. Getting a job of bad quality is indeed a social risk which must be taken into account. It may have consequences on a worker’s income level, job satisfaction, career prospects, and affect well-being as well as physical or psychological health. The ‘job quality’ agenda was first introduced in 2001 and has had fluctuating fortunes, from having a central role to official neglect. The topic is highly political as well as technical. It deals with key aspects of everybody’s working lives, such as wages, working conditions, employment security, gender equality, the importance of part-time work, access to training and career progression, and so on , and it interferes with other European priorities such as ‘activation’. It also involves the choice, implementation and use of a common set of statistical indicators, and is a typical area of dialogue among experts and debate involving different stakeholders at European level: Member States and the European Commission, but also social partners. Overall, the ‘job quality’ agenda is a good illustration of the construction of an important component of the EES, in terms of its conception and implementation. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the evolution of this agenda. The corresponding field of research is heterogeneous and burgeoning, and includes official reports at the EU level, as well as a related ‘grey’ literature (memoranda, notes, etc.), policymakers’ initiatives and debates at various levels, along with other actors’ reactions (such as union leaders) and proposals. Three methodological choices have been made, in order to keep this diffuse set of information and data manageable. The first is to focus on the EU-level elaboration process, and to add some selected complementary observations made at national and/or regional levels. The second is to exploit the considerable variations which occurred during the decade 2001−2011, in order to explore the changing content and meaning of the ‘job quality’ agenda. The persisting difficulties of EU construction in the 2000s, as well as the current economic crisis which exploded in 2008, may be seen as revealing processes, through which the objective has been re-examined and re-evaluated almost permanently. The third is to link official documents to the comments of concerned actors or informed observers. These views are collected either from the existing literature or by interview. The chapter is organised in three sections. Section 5.1 develops a framework to analyse the EES ‘soft’ governance process under review, and to analyse the interactions between political targets and indicators that make up the political agenda. The second section focuses on the difficulty of constructing such an agenda for the ‘job quality’ objective at the European level, in terms of a conceptual (or cognitive) framework, operational indicators and political priorities. Section 5.3 introduces other governance levels (Member States, regions, social partners), and briefly considers how the corresponding actors interact with the European ‘job quality’ agenda.

The creation of the Personal Training Account (PTA) invites us to analyze the foundations and stakes of this type of system by crossing the perspectives of law and economics. The great diversity of training "account" systems refers to policies that can be inscribed in two paradigms, that of endowments and that of capacities. While both promote the initiative and autonomy of the individual (according to a logic known as empowerment), they also raise the question of the respective roles of all the actors - workers, employers, the State and social partners - in the mobilization and use of these accounts.

The renewed topicality of the controversies surrounding the minimum wage invites us to place them in a long history that begins at the end of the 19th century. This history is approached here by articulating three levels of analysis. The first two deal respectively with the study of the empirical and theoretical contents of economic controversies, and with the study of their methodological and even, beyond that, epistemological issues. A third level of analysis, according to a historical sociology of science approach, aims at recontextualizing economic debates by taking into account the modes of articulation of the academic sphere with three other spheres: the political sphere, the administrative sphere, and the sphere of civil society and the economic and social world. Based on the experience of the United States, France and the United Kingdom (and its Commonwealth), three major periods are distinguished - around the First World War, from the 1940s to the 1980s, and finally, from the mid-1990s to the present. Beyond the question of the minimum wage, the history of these debates sheds light on the evolution of labor economics during this period, and to some extent, on the evolution of economics as a whole.

The back cover states: "Since the second half of the 1970s, unemployment has been at the heart of French economic and social news, punctuated by the periodic publication of the number of jobseekers, each rise or fall of which is commented on. It has become the obsession of all governments, which navigate between a declared voluntarism and a misguided fatalism. The crisis that began in 2008 has resulted in a new aggravation. However, mass unemployment is not inevitable: France has experienced periods of significant decline in the number of unemployed since the second half of the 1990s and, when we look at other industrialized countries, including in Europe, some have very low unemployment rates, sometimes below 5%. How can we understand the controversy surrounding "unemployment figures", which resurface periodically? What are the factors behind unemployment and why does it persist? Why are some countries much more successful in containing it than others? What are the policies to reduce it? The facts, the theories, the policies: this book is an unparalleled synthesis".

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The State's wage policy has undergone significant changes over the last decade. Parametric adjustments (freezing of the index point, de facto indexation of low salaries to the minimum wage) and partial measures (reclassification of certain categories) have been adopted, but more structural reforms of the remuneration system, even if they were desired by the State, have not really succeeded. At the same time, the State's salary policy has become more categorical. Beyond the limited effects on average purchasing power, these changes have had important consequences and help explain the rise of significant salary discontent. All of these developments are of concern to the trade unions, whose strategies at various levels (central and local) vary from opposition to support.

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The temptation of the economist, when he has to analyze economic phenomena, is always to mobilize his "toolbox" based on two closely related conceptual instruments. The first is homo oeconomicus. In the field of economic activities (and even, for some economists such as Gary Becker, whatever the field of activity considered), behavior is assumed to be a priori rational and self-interested. More precisely, the individual is assumed to be aware of his interests, and to be willing to pursue them in the most efficient way given the means at his disposal and the constraints to which he is subject. The second key concept is the market. As the Nobel Prize winner Robert Solow ironically but fairly noted, economists are parroting "supply and demand" over and over again. The interplay of supply and demand determines the price, in the labor "market" as in all other markets. For more than a century, anthropologists and sociologists have been at liberty to denounce the reductive nature of this approach: economists tend to universalize and thus naturalize categories (homo oeconomicus and the market as a mechanism for coordinating behavior and allocating resources) that are merely historical and social constructs. By applying these categories to other times and/or other societies, economists risk committing the sins of anachronism and/or ethnocentrism. Max Weber showed how homo oeconomicus was only a recent bourgeois Western representation, the result of a long historical evolution. Karl Polanyi, and following him contemporary economic sociology, underlined how - even in our contemporary Western societies, and a fortiori in societies that are more distant in space or time - economic activities, even when they took the form of monetized exchanges, were embedded, or "encased" (according to the translation that we give to "embedded") in social relations. Two main forms of embedding can be distinguished. The first, which we shall refer to here as cognitive and cultural embedding, refers to what we might call the categories of understanding, or of representation. The economic behavior implied by the concept of homo oeconomicus presupposes a whole set of representations - starting with the notion of individual interest, a certain relationship to time, the concepts of investment, profit and return, risk, etc. - that we do not find, in the same way as in the case of homo oeconomicus. - The second form refers to the "economicus", which is a set of representations that are not found, or do not take on the same meaning, in other cultural systems. The second form refers to social embedding, which itself has two dimensions. Following Mark Granovetter, we will distinguish here between relational embedding and structural embedding. The first refers to the individual's personal relationships (of neighbors, relatives, etc.). The second, in a more encompassing way, inscribes the activities of the individual in the structure of social relations (master/servant, suzerain/vassal...). The evidence of these two forms of embedding - and more particularly of the second - seems to be obvious when we look at the "labor market" - if we can forgive this anachronism - in the Middle Ages, and more particularly at the wage, understood in a broad sense, and at wage-labor. Without fundamentally questioning it, it is this evidence that we would like to question, in the light of the very rich contributions to this book. More precisely, the following question will guide our analysis: to what extent do the practices observed deviate from what would follow from strict economic logic - i.e. that which stems from the rational practices of individuals establishing market relations? Are these practices as "embedded" as one might think a priori? Or what does the study of wages and salaries in the Middle Ages reveal about the ways in which social logic (in the broad sense) and economic logic (in the "strict" sense) are intertwined?

Wages are an essential component of the standard of living. For the vast majority of workers, the amount of their wages is of considerable importance. How do different wage earners perceive both the wage they receive and the differences between them and others? The two major surveys from which this book is drawn reveal the relationships that workers have with their wages and the meaning they attribute to their pay. They focus on the subjective ways in which wages are perceived and on the criteria of fairness to which individuals refer in order to evaluate their amount. The same questionnaire, the "SalSa" survey ("salaries as seen by employees"), was administered to a sample of employees in private and public companies, on the one hand, and to a sample of employees in the civil service, on the other. These surveys show that, from the point of view of employees, pay is never simply a sum of money to satisfy needs. It is also a way of measuring the value of the work done, its recognition by society and therefore the value of the person himself, in himself but also in relation to others. This is why the way in which individuals know, apprehend and judge their remuneration and that of others is an essential element for understanding the procedures for determining and therefore negotiating wages, but also the meaning that individuals attribute to their work. (Editor's summary).

Wages are an essential component of the standard of living. For the vast majority of workers, the amount of their wages is of considerable importance. How do different wage earners perceive both the wage they receive and the differences between them and others? The two major surveys from which this book is drawn reveal the relationships that workers have with their wages and the meaning they attribute to their pay. They focus on the subjective ways in which wages are perceived and on the criteria of fairness to which individuals refer in order to evaluate their amount. The same questionnaire, the "SalSa" survey ("salaries as seen by employees"), was administered to a sample of employees in private and public companies, on the one hand, and to a sample of employees in the civil service, on the other. These surveys show that, from the point of view of employees, pay is never simply a sum of money to satisfy needs. It is also a way of measuring the value of the work done, its recognition by society and therefore the value of the person himself, in himself but also in relation to others. This is why the way in which individuals know, apprehend and judge their remuneration and that of others is an essential element for understanding the procedures for determining and therefore negotiating wages, but also the meaning that individuals attribute to their work.

In most developed societies, including France, we are now witnessing an increase in social and economic disparities between territories, and the appearance and persistence of "problem" neighborhoods, which concentrate the most vulnerable populations. Spatial segregation" appears to be a norm of urban organization and the territory as a challenge for social cohesion. Numerous economic and sociological studies have sought to explain the differences in situations observed, particularly in the labor market, between these populations. Three main mechanisms explain the impact of place of residence on the labor market success of individuals: spatial mismatch, social environment and discrimination due to place of residence. In this doctoral thesis we focus on the latter mechanism through which location affects the labor market performance of individuals. Through three studies covering three chapters, we will highlight three important elements in the analysis of residency discrimination: the feeling of discrimination, wage discrimination and hiring discrimination. These are illustrated by different methodologies: an analysis of subjective survey data, an analysis of objective survey data and finally an analysis of experimental data. The main results are as follows. We have shown that there are specific effects of place of residence on young people's feelings of discrimination. We have shown that the place of residence has a direct influence on the probability of finding a job at the end of the studies as well as on the salary associated to this job. Using a decomposition of wage gaps, we showed that there is likely to be discrimination related to place of residence, which affects young women in particular. We found a determining effect of the department of residence on the chances of access to employment for individuals. The same effect also exists, in a weaker way, at the level of the reputation of the applicants' area of residence. An analysis of the order of the answers given to the candidates confirmed these results and even revealed an even stronger discrimination. Based on these results, we propose public policy recommendations related to the different aspects of residency discrimination.

This thesis focuses on the heterogeneity of business practices, its causes and consequences. The mobilization of segmentation theories allows us to propose a theoretical framework in which the differentiation of business practices is the primary source of the structuring of the labor market. In order to understand the structure of the labor market, the definition of the causes and consequences of the heterogeneity of practices then takes on a central role. In an inductive approach, several empirical works are then developed to advance in this direction. Analysing the causes of the implementation of an employment management strategy, the emphasis is placed on the influence of actors outside the firm (the owner of the capital or the principal) as well as on the existence of interlocutors within the firm itself (unions). Another line of empirical work studies the consequences of company practices on the level and form of occupational mobility.

Europe today has more than 26 million unemployed people. This record is a sign of triple failure: economic, social and political. But it also brings old questions to the forefront. What are the causes of unemployment? Should it be attributed, as the current dominant theory suggests, to a lack of flexibility or to the cost of labor being too high? This second part of Deciphering brings together offbeat archives, original animations, interviews and reports to make the mechanisms of mass unemployment and the solutions that could be used against it more intelligible. Combining expertise and pedagogy, explanation and provocation, it gives the floor to many European specialists. (source: cover).

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"This book is the first in a series of three volumes that aim to cover the main contemporary economic and social issues at the national, European and global levels. Their particularity is to have been conceived and written by specialists in these issues, recognized academics and researchers, for high school and undergraduate students. The texts gathered here are distinguished by three major qualities: each is a synthesis of the state of scientific knowledge . their clarity and readability make them accessible without compromising their rigor . their problematization gives meaning to the questions addressed and arouses the reader's interest. In order to better respond to questions about the world and our society, in particular those related to the multiple crises we are facing, the book has not only been updated and reworked, but also enriched by new contributions." [Source: 4th cover].

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This chapter analyses the recent changes in the French Public Sector, and in particular the impact of the crisis. In France, the crisis that started in 2008 erupted in a context in which significant reforms had been introduced recently, affecting both the size and the organization of the public service, which plays a crucial role in France as it employs about one-fifth of the total workforce. This raises a methodological issue, as it may become difficult to disentangle, in the changes undergone by the public sector, what is due to reforms introduced before the crisis and what results directly from measures induced by the crisis. France is indeed a good example of a mix of structural reforms and quantitative adjustments in the public service which raises the issue of how they are combined or when and where they may reveal antagonisms. The issue is complex because if some structural changes result directly from policies intended to reform the public sector, others may also be induced by the quantitative adjustments themselves, such as job cuts, for instance, that may impact on public service organization and delivery. The consequences of public sector adjustments can first be assessed in terms of their impact on the public employees - concerning employment level and status, wage level and structure, but also work organization and working conditions. The second set of consequences that must be taken into account concerns the labour market. As the public service is a significant employer of well-educated school-leavers and of women, these categories may be more affected by the freeze on hiring and/or job cuts. Finally, one needs to investigate the consequences of the adjustments for public service delivery, in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Section 2 focuses on the main features of the adjustments in the French public sector, beginning by mapping the background, before presenting the main measures. Section 3 focuses on consequences in terms of pay, employment and public service activities. Section 4 introduces two case studies to illustrate both the modalities of adjustment and their effective and potential impacts. Section 5 summarizes findings and offers some concluding remarks on the policy issues raised by these adjustments.

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Since the end of the thesis in 1994, my research work has always been carried out in collaboration, often in teams. Since 2001, when I joined the Matisse, it has been part of two separate research groups corresponding to the two axes that structure my research: forms of labor mobilization and employment protection. This synthesis document consists in proposing a personal reorganization of all these collective contributions in order to draw a possible framework for future research.

The objective of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of the stakes of employee savings for compensation policies in French companies. A historical and theoretical perspective first allows us to identify the motivations leading companies to develop a system combining profit-sharing and employee savings plans. Then, through a theoretical model of the "Principal-Agent" type, we explain the characteristics of a contract combining profit-sharing with a PEE. The resulting theoretical predictions are finally validated by an empirical study on individual company and employee data. Based on a propensity score matching estimation, the results reveal that companies that integrate a profit-sharing scheme into their compensation policies pay lower base salaries on average, compensated by the payment of a profit-sharing bonus. Moreover, the latter has a positive and significant impact on profit, but a non-significant effect on the companies' labor productivity. Nevertheless, there is a positive correlation between the implementation of the scheme and labor productivity, which may be due to a selection effect. This work leads us to defend the thesis that the introduction by firms of a scheme combining profit-sharing and the PEE is aimed not only at incentive effects but also at controlling labor costs. Moreover, when the PEE gives rise to employee shareholding, it enables companies to pursue capital stabilization objectives.

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The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the causes of youth unemployment in France, and the effectiveness of the active employment policies that have been deployed in their favor since the 1970s. The first part presents a diagnosis. It attempts to determine to what extent the factors generally put forward - primarily the cost of labor and training - have played a role in the emergence and maintenance of high youth unemployment. The analyses are conducted in a comparative perspective - with particular reference to the American and German experiences. The second part deals with active employment policies and their evaluation. The first chapter analyzes the deployment of these policies since the 1970s, as well as the reasons why firms use the different schemes and the effects of these schemes on the beneficiaries. The second chapter presents a framework for macroeconomic analysis of active employment policy for young people, and, in a second step, presents an estimate based on quarterly data of the effects on youth unemployment in France of changes in the minimum wage and the deployment of the various measures. The last chapter presents an evaluation method that uses, at one stage, a macroeconomic model, and applies it to the measures deployed in favor of young people in France between 1985 and 1994.