DOMINGUES DOS SANTOS Manon

Since the 2000s, the economies of the African continent have shown remarkable growth. However, the current context jeopardizes the sustainable development of the private sector. Imperfections in the institutional system and the business environment hinder the stable development of enterprises and pave the way for the growth of a very persistent informal sector. This thesis re-opens the polemical debate on the informal sector by emphasizing the entrepreneurial capacity of this sector rather than the threats it represents. In order to understand the strong persistence of informality despite its negative impacts, we test the extent to which competition between formal and informal firms could affect the Egyptian economy. We find that more intense competition induces formal firms to become more productive. We also extend our analysis to sub-Saharan African countries by highlighting the stimulating effect of taxation and regulation on the strength of competition between formal and informal firms. Our results call for the inclusion of the informal sector in public policies aimed at tax and regulatory reform in Africa. These policies should also focus on providing firms with access to finance, infrastructure, and training as the main tools to induce the formalization process and promote economic growth. This thesis highlights the importance of rethinking the effects of the informal sector in developing countries, while considering it as a stimulator of economic growth rather than a threat.

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This thesis proposes to evaluate the methods and organization of job seeker support within a private placement operator, the firm Sodie, in order to extract the main performance levers. In the first chapter, we analyze the theoretical and empirical effects generated by the support systems on the one hand, and by the use of outsourcing on the other. The second chapter deals with the French institutional framework of job-seeker support. We show to what extent the French public employment service meets the criteria of effectiveness set out in the previous chapter. In the third chapter, we study how the diversification of the firm's missions, and in particular the subcontracting for Pôle Emploi, has modified the work of the counsellors, but also the organization of the structure as well as its support methodologies. Chapter 4 deals with a controlled experimentation of two devices: the monthly reclassification commitments and the implementation of an Enterprise Relation platform intended to prospect the hidden job market. We measure the impact of a change in methodology on the sustainable reclassification of supported jobseekers. Chapter 5 focuses on the effects of an information shock. We show how the profiling information is used by the counselors through the impact on the selected candidates and their outplacement performance.

This thesis studies the relationship between migration, unemployment and growth. The first part evaluates the arguments for the location choice of workers and the selectivity of migration. The second part focuses on the relationship between migration and unemployment. A summary highlights three limitations of previous work, which chapters 4 and 5 attempt to address. These chapters consider that not all local labor markets are competitive, as wages are negotiated. The determinants of location choice are extended to migration costs and land rents in addition to employment opportunities and wages. Transitional dynamics are also studied. The following results are demonstrated. Labor mobility does not exclude the persistence of unemployment rate differentials. The opening of borders can increase or decrease the general level of unemployment. It can induce an over-adjustment of the unemployment rate of the receiving region and an under-adjustment of that of the sending region. Finally, it always increases the welfare of the most disadvantaged workers. The last part is devoted to the relationship between migration and growth. Previous theoretical work, summarized in chapter 6, concludes that the immigration of low-skilled workers has a negative impact on the welfare of the host region, while the emigration of skilled workers is generally considered detrimental to the region of departure. Two original contributions put these conclusions into perspective. First, it is shown that low-skilled immigration can induce more workers to train, which is a favorable consequence for the growth of the host region. Furthermore, we show that skilled migration may be desirable if the sending country can imitate the technological advances made in the receiving country and if the emigrants send remittances to their home region.