Post n°199

The economic transformations linked to teleworking

Published on 01/12/2021

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By Antonin Bergeaud and Simon Ray

The health restrictions put in place in France and the rest of Europe have obliged firms and workers to resort to teleworking on a massive scale. By breaking down some of the existing barriers to home-working, this shock will probably mark a turning point in the use of teleworking. This in turn has major implications for workers, businesses and the economy.

Chart 1: Cross-department heterogeneity in potential for teleworking
Chart 1: Cross-department heterogeneity in potential for teleworking Source: DADS, Dingel and Neiman (2020) and DARES (2019)
Updated on 01/12/2021 10:31

Eco Notepad: four years to reach the age of reason!

Published on 01/07/2021

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Eco Notepad celebrated its fourth birthday in December 2020: we’ve published nearly 200 posts in English and French and our readership keeps on growing! 2020 was a reminder of just how important it is to have rapidly available, relevant information in order to make sense of economic events as they happen.

Updated on 01/07/2021 14:53
Post n°198

Teleworking: how will it affect productivity?

Published on 01/05/2021

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By Antonin Bergeaud and Gilbert Cette

Teleworking has increased sharply with the Covid-19 crisis and is likely to remain widespread in the future. This could have favourable effects on firms’ productivity, notably through the accelerated diffusion of technologies. However, the academic literature stresses that adequate preparation will be needed in order to reap the full benefits of this favourable impact.

Chart 1: Inverted-U relationship between teleworking intensity (as a proportion of working time) and productivity for two different activities Inspired by the OECD (2020)
Updated on 01/05/2021 19:10
Post n°196

Bank stress-tests at the time of Covid-19- Episode 2

Published on 12/24/2020

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By Valère Fourel, Julien Idier, Valerio Scalone and Aurore Schilte

Unlike the fictitious scenarios used in standard prudential stress test exercises (see post "Bank stress tests: tools for prudential analysis – Episode 1"), the Covid-19 crisis represents an unprecedented adverse scenario. This is an opportunity to draw the first lessons from it: (i) on the resilience of the banking system, as observed for the time being, and (ii) on the improvement of stress-test tools in the light of this experience.

Chart 1: Loss of GDP in the stress tests and during recent crises (pp)
Chart 1: Loss of GDP in the stress tests and during recent crises (pp)
Updated on 12/24/2020 15:06
Post n°195

Bank stress tests: tools for prudential analysis – Episode 1

Published on 12/22/2020

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By Valère Fourel, Julien Idier, Valerio Scalone and Aurore Schilte

In order to protect banks from macroeconomic and financial shocks, prudential authorities use a range of risk analysis tools, among them stress tests. What are they? What purpose do they serve? This blog post answers these questions and is accompanied by a second post on the “real-life” stress placed on banks by the Covid-19 crisis.

Chart 1: Steps in a bottom-up bank stress-test exercise.
Chart 1: Steps in a bottom-up bank stress-test exercise.
Updated on 12/22/2020 16:24
Post n°194

Digital technologies: a source of a productivity rebound?

Published on 12/18/2020

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By Gilbert Cette, Sandra Nevoux and Loriane Py

Digital technologies are often seen as a potential vector for the third industrial revolution. This blog exploits a unique survey by the Banque de France to measure firms’ digitalisation and determine its potential impact on productivity. The use of technologies, which has been stimulated by the Covid-19 crisis, could facilitate and reinforce the economic rebound.

Chart 1: Use of ICTs and digital technologies in manufacturing in 2018
Chart 1: Use of ICTs and digital technologies in manufacturing in 2018 Sources: Survey of factor utilisation degrees and FIBEN (Banque de France). Scope: Firms for which at least one establishment belongs to the manufacturing sector and with at least 20 employees.
Updated on 12/18/2020 14:43
Post n°193

Fed’s financial stability concerns and monetary policy

Published on 12/15/2020

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By Klodiana Istrefi, Florens Odendahl and Giulia Sestieri

Even though the Fed does not have an explicit financial stability objective extending beyond its supervisory responsibilities, the public speeches of Fed officials reveal that there is a relationship between the higher proportion of speaking time on financial stability topics and more accommodative monetary policy. Financial stability became a topic of concern in Fed speeches especially around the global financial crisis.

Chart 1. Main topics covered in Fed speeches
Chart 1. Main topics covered in Fed speeches Source: Istrefi, Odendahl, Sestieri (2020). The chart shows the proportion of six topics extracted from the Fed speeches for the period 1997 to 2018. The topic proportions displayed are annual averages.
Updated on 12/15/2020 18:46
Post n°192

Speed up restructuring proceedings in response to Covid-19?

Published on 12/10/2020

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By Chloé Zapha

Collective restructuring proceedings could be improved in order to deal effectively with ailing firms. Speeding up the process of corporate debt restructuring - starting with the safeguard procedure - could help as many firms as possible to recover.

Chart 1: fewer receivership proceedings have been initiated than in previous years since the beginning of lockdown
Chart 1: fewer receivership proceedings have been initiated than in previous years since the beginning of lockdown Source: France Stratégie (data from the BODACC, calculations by Cros, Epaulard and Zapha)
Updated on 12/10/2020 10:41
Post n°191

What if one solution was to empty your neighbours' waste bin?

Published on 12/08/2020

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Second prize-winning blog in the 2020 Eco Notepad Challenge - By Eugenie Ribault

The lack of waste management remains as harmful to the environment as civil aviation or merchant shipping. Financing these sectors, particularly in developing countries, remains complex: waste recovery is not profitable. How can these difficulties be overcome? What are the long-term benefits, locally and for the planet? This post explores some avenues including alcohol and tobacco taxes as a source of transitional funding.

Source: © Kelly Lacy, Bangladesh, 2015
Updated on 12/08/2020 10:02
Post n°190

To avoid shipwreck, imagine a "stranded-compensated" principle

Published on 12/03/2020

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1st prize-winning blog in the 2020 Eco Notepad Challenge - by Mathilde Salin et Louis Daumas

Less than a generation lies ahead of us to carry out the bulk of the changes needed to attenuate climate change. Such a rapid transition will imply the loss of a significant share of the physical, human and financial capital accumulated in carbon-intensive sectors. We need to acknowledge this loss and look at ways of making it tolerable.

An example: Propagation of stranded assets in the extractive sector
An example: Propagation of stranded assets in the extractive sector Sources: authors and Cahen-Fourot et al. 2019. Note: Stranded assets (forced capital under-employment) in the fossil extractive sector will directly or indirectly lead to asset stranding in sectors downstream.
Updated on 12/03/2020 10:13
Post n°189

What are the factors behind current high stock market valuations?

Published on 11/26/2020

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By Nicolas Chatelais and Arthur Stalla-Bourdillon

Despite the corrections at the end of 2018 and the Covid-19 shock, price-earnings ratios remain at high levels, particularly in the United States. However, based on indices adjusted for expected growth and the level of interest rates, this trend does not appear to be the result of irrational exuberance like in previous speculative episodes.

Chart 1: Cyclically adjusted P/Es and interest rates in the United States
Chart 1: Cyclically adjusted P/Es and interest rates in the United States Sources: S&P 500, Datastream, Fed Saint Louis & Philadelphia. Author’s calculations. Most recent value: October 2020
Updated on 11/26/2020 14:49
Post n°188

Who has purchased euro area debt since the start of the health crisis?

Published on 11/20/2020

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By Olivier Sirello

The coronavirus crisis and decline in economic activity have led to a steep rise in the need for financing. As a result, net issuance of public and private debt securities in the euro area has increased to unprecedented levels. The main buyers are central banks and banking institutions, and, to a lesser extent, non-euro area residents.

Chart 1: Public and private debt issuance has reached record levels in the euro area (Seasonally adjusted data, EUR billions)
Chart 1: Public and private debt issuance has reached record levels in the euro area (Seasonally adjusted data, EUR billions) Source: European Central Bank (author’ s calculations).
Updated on 11/20/2020 15:36

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