BOCK Sebastien

This thesis explores the implications of technical progress and labor taxation on employment performance in France and the United States over the past four decades. Chapter 1 assesses the extent to which differences in socio-demographic and occupational structures between countries explain the French employment deficit. This deficit reflects not only a deficient labor market, but also a reallocation of work that affects the employment prospects and participation decisions of specific sociodemographic groups. Chapter 2 examines the determinants of unskilled employment performance in France between 1982 and 2008. Technical progress and labor taxation policies are key to understanding the deterioration of unskilled employment. The reallocation of unskilled labor from routine jobs to manual jobs induced by technical progress is partly hindered by the presence of the non-market sector. Labor taxation interacts with technical progress by changing the value of unskilled jobs relative to non-market labor. Chapter 3 studies the implications of routine technology shocks on economic fluctuations between 1989 and 2017 in the United States. It assesses their impact by estimating a structural VAR model. Technology shocks biased against routine tasks explain the recessionary effects of technology shocks on hours worked. These shocks appear quantitatively relevant and generate recognizable business cycle fluctuations.

Technological change has been biased towards replacing routine labor over the past four decades. We study the implications of those shifts in the task composition of labor demand over the business cycle. We build quarterly time series on hours worked and task premiums from the CPS and assess the e_ects of routine-biased technological change by estimating a VAR model with long-run exclusion and sign restrictions. The decline in total hours worked is driven by routine-biased technology shocks through a decline in routine hours. These shocks appear quantitatively relevant and generate recognizable aggregate uctuations pointing out their relevance to business cycles.

This thesis explores the implications of technological change and labor taxation for employment performances in France and the U.S. over the past four decades. Chapter 1 delves into transatlantic employment performances. It measures the extent to which cross-country discrepancies in socio-demographic and occupational structures account for the transatlantic employment gap over time. The French employment deficit does not only reflect a disfunctioning labor market but also the occupational reallocation of labor that affects the employment prospects and participation decisions of specific socio-demographic groups. Chapter 2 investigates the determinants of unskilled employment outcomes in France between 1982 and 2008. Technological change and labor taxation policies are pivotal to grasp the deterioration of unskilled employment. The reallocation of unskilled labor from routine jobs towards manual jobs induced by technological change is partly obstructed by the presence of a non­market sector. Labor taxation interacts with technological change by distorting the value of unskilled jobs with respect to non-market work. Chapter 3 studies the implications of routine-biased technological shocks for aggregate fluctuations between 1989 and 2017 in the U.S. It assesses the effects of technological shocks by estimating a structural VAR mode! with long-run exclusion and sign restrictions. Routine-biased technology shocks account for the recessionary effects of technological shocks on hours worked. These shocks appear quantitatively relevant and generate recognizable business cycle fluctuations.

This paper provides an explanation for the decline in unskilled employment in a context of job polarization in France between 1982 and 2008. I argue that job polarization induced significant unskilled employment losses. Unskilled employment losses were enhanced by high and increasing labor taxation until 1993 while this trend has been mitigated by the implementation of labor cost reduction policies since then. The key mechanism is that job polarization displaces unskilled workers from routine jobs toward manual jobs and non-market work. Labor taxation interacts with job polarization by changing the value of unskilled jobs with respect to non-market work.

This article aims at deepening our understanding on three facts in labor economics: structural transformation, labor market polarization and the deterioration of European labor market outcomes. The originality of our approach is that we extend the literature by focusing on the role played by productivity and taxation on low skilled services hours of work between 1970 and 2007 in Europe and the U.S. Indeed, this sector produces services that can be highly substitutable with home produced goods. One might expect that taxation has a significant effect on hours worked in this sector. We allowed for ICT diffusion which is equivalent to productivity growth. We also introduced distortionary taxation on labor income and a home production sector which is not subject to taxation. Our model seems to replicate some qualitative facts as the evolution of hours worked, relative price, wage polarization, and quantitative facts as sectoral shares of hours worked mostly for Europe suggesting that productivity and taxation are indeed key variables.

This article aims at deepening our understanding on three facts in labor economics: structural transformation, labor market polarization and the deterioration of European labor market outcomes. The originality of our approach is that we extend the literature by focusing on the role played by productivity and taxation on low skilled services hours of work between 1970 and 2007 in Europe and the U.S. Indeed, this sector produces services that can be highly substitutable with home produced goods. One might expect that taxation has a significant effect on hours worked in this sector. We allowed for ICT diffusion which is equivalent to productivity growth. We also introduced distortionary taxation on labor income and a home production sector which is not subject to taxation. Our model seems to replicate some qualitative facts as the evolution of hours worked, relative price, wage polarization, and quantitative facts as sectoral shares of hours worked mostly for Europe suggesting that productivity and taxation are indeed key variables.

This article aims at deepening our understanding on three facts in labor economics: structural transformation, labor market polarization and the deterioration of European labor market outcomes. The originality of our approach is that we extend the literature by focusing on the role played by productivity and taxation on low skilled services hours of work between 1970 and 2007 in Europe and the U.S. Indeed, this sector produces services that can be highly substitutable with home produced goods. One might expect that taxation has a significant effect on hours worked in this sector. We allowed for ICT diffusion which is equivalent to productivity growth. We also introduced distortionary taxation on labor income and a home production sector which is not subject to taxation. Our model seems to replicate some qualitative facts as the evolution of hours worked, relative price, wage polarization, and quantitative facts as sectoral shares of hours worked mostly for Europe suggesting that productivity and taxation are indeed key variables.