Students, the fith Eco Notepad competition will close on the 17th of July. the Banque de France is inviting students in France to write a post on the theme of "The effects of inflation on households and companies”. The two best posts will be published on this site and will receive a prize of 3,000 and 1,500 euros and a one-year subscription to Pour l'Eco.
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Post n°61

Imports from low-wage countries: what gains for households?

Published on 04/17/2018

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By Juan Carluccio, Erwan Gautier and Sophie Guilloux-Nefussi

The share of imports from low-wage countries in French households’ consumption increased threefold from 1994 to 2014. These less expensive imports lowered inflation in France by 0.17 pp per year on average. This direct effect of imports since 1994 represented a gain of about EUR 1,000 in terms of average household consumption in 2014. However, the indirect effects of opening up to international trade on households’ purchasing power, via wages and employment, were not taken into account.

Chart 1: Share of imports in households’ consumption (in %) Source: Carluccio et al. (2018) based on Customs and INSEE data Note: Only imports of final goods that are included in household consumption are taken into account.
Updated on 02/13/2020 11:24
Post n°60

Increase in the employment of seniors in the euro area

Published on 04/13/2018

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By Violaine Faubert and Antoine Lalliard

Since 2008, the over-50s are the only age group in the euro area to have seen a steady rise in employment, as a result of population ageing and the increase in the effective pension age. In contrast, the number of those under 50 in work has fallen markedly over the same period, despite a recent stabilisation in the trend. The over-60s are the only group not to have seen an improvement in gross hourly wages between 2010 and 2014.

Chart 1: Number of people in work in the euro area by age group and for the entire population aged 15-74. Difference relative to the first quarter of 2008 (thousands). Source: Eurostat
Updated on 02/21/2020 15:01
Post n°59

A post-depreciation view of the non-financial corporations account

Published on 04/11/2018

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By Pierre Sicsic

In France in 2016, the gross margin rate of non-financial corporations (NFCs) returned to its early 2000s level, at 32%, while the net margin rate was 15%, compared with 18% in the 2000s. Thus, using aggregates "net" of capital depreciation gives a different picture of the NFCs account. Furthermore, the NFCs' net saving rate would be close to zero, and their stock of fixed capital could only increase through external financing.

Chart 1: gross and net margin rates of French NFCs Source: Insee, table 7.101 – non-financial corporations account (S11).
Updated on 02/21/2020 14:51
Post n°58

The economic impact of budget-neutral measures

Published on 04/04/2018

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By Matthieu Bussière, Laurent Ferrara, Michel Juillard and Daniele Siena

This study shows that budget-neutral measures – i.e. changes in the composition of fiscal revenue and spending that leave the ex-ante total government budget unchanged – can boost economic growth. However, not all households are equally affected by these measures. In addition, measures implemented when monetary policy is accommodative have larger macro effects.

Figure 1: GDP and private investment Figure taken from Bussière et al (2017)
Updated on 02/21/2020 14:43
Post n°57

US fiscal policy: growth at any cost?

Published on 03/30/2018

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By Marie-Élisabeth de la Serve, Sophie Haincourt, Clément Marsilli

Less than two months after the adoption of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which cut individual income tax and corporate tax, US Congress passed a budget agreement that increases public spending for 2018 and 2019. The effects on the US economy represent a two-edged sword: an additional 1.4 percentage point of GDP over two years, but a widening of the trade and budget deficits to 4% and 6% of GDP respectively. The recent dollar depreciation may reflect the growing concerns of international investors

Chart1 – United States: federal budget balance and economic cycle since 1960 Sources: Data from the Bureau of Fiscal Service, Bureau of Labor Statistics and CBO; authors' calculations.
Updated on 02/21/2020 14:29
Post n°56

Predicting financial crises: a balancing act

Published on 03/28/2018

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By Julien Idier and Virginie Coudert

Were it easy to predict financial crises, it would be just as easy for the macroprudential authorities to prevent them. The statistical methods used for forecasting financial crises are greatly improving but have to contend with the fact that such events are (fortunately) rare and occur suddenly. In this article, we discuss the usefulness of early warning systems as well as their limitations on the grounds that the financial system is constantly evolving.

Updated on 02/20/2020 17:30
Post n°55

The labour supply of baby boomers and low-flation

Published on 03/23/2018

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By Benoit Mojon and Xavier Ragot

The weakness of wage inflation may result in part from the increasing participation of older workers in the labour market. Over the last two decades, the participation rate of workers aged 55 to 64 has increased from 33% to 55% on average across OECD countries. We observe that, since 2013, the countries where this increase in labour supply has been the largest have also experienced slower wage inflation.

Figure 1: Wage inflation and the participation of older workers in the G7
Updated on 02/20/2020 17:23
Post n°54

No excessive risk in the quality of collateral pledged with the Eurosystem during the crisis

Published on 03/21/2018

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By Jean Barthélemy, Vincent Bignon and Benoît Nguyen

Certain critics feel that the Eurosystem took excessive risks to fight the crisis by accepting poor quality collateral for its refinancing operations. Exhaustive analysis of the collateral pledged with the central bank disproves these claims. Their quality followed that of assets available on the market and improved significantly after Quantitative Easing was announced.

Chart 1. Average quality of assets pledged as collateral with the Eurosystem and assets available on the market (eligible for the central bank). Sources: Eurosystem, authors' calculations. Note: GIIPS refers to Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain. For the purpose of this article, only marketable securities are considered.
Updated on 02/20/2020 17:18
Post n°53

Spillovers to the euro area from a sudden rise in the US term premium

Published on 03/15/2018

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By Daniele Siena and Urszula Szczerbowicz

The US term premium (TP) has been very low by historical standards. Would its sudden rise affect the euro area (EA)? Lower US demand and tighter financial conditions would slow down EA activity. A surprise 1pp increase in US TP could reduce US and EA GDP growth by 0.4pp and 0.25pp respectively. Such effects would be smaller if the monetary authorities were to counteract the fall in inflation.

Figure 1: 10-year Term Premia in the United States, Germany and the euro area Note: The term premia of 10-year government bonds are estimated by NIESR. The euro area term premium is here calculated as ECB capital key weighted average of the term premia of the member countries.
Updated on 02/20/2020 17:11
Post n°52

Core inflation excluding housing is lower in the US than in the euro area

Published on 03/09/2018

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By Eric Monnet and Angel Gomez

The difference in core inflation between the United States and the euro area is mainly due to housing rents. Since last year’s blogpost on the issue, this feature has become even more blatant: core inflation excluding housing rents is currently lower in the United States than in the euro area, whereas US core inflation is still much higher.

Chart 1: Core inflation vs. core inflation excluding housing rents (quarterly data). Sources: CPI (BLS) for the United States and HICP (Eurostat) for the euro area
Updated on 02/20/2020 17:03
Post n°51

Economics: where are the women?

Published on 03/07/2018

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Anne Boring and Soledad Zignago

In 2017, several studies revived the debate in the United States on the place of female economists in the profession and on the barriers to progress that had to be lifted. In most countries, women are poorly represented in all fields of economics (19% on average worldwide) and the situation is stagnating over time. However, significant differences exist between countries. In France, for example, women are a little more present, particularly among assistant professors.

Map 1: Proportion of female economists by country Source: Female representation in Economics, RePEc, January 2018.
Updated on 02/20/2020 16:54
Post n°50

The impact of oil prices on inflation in France and the euro area

Published on 02/28/2018

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By Yannick Kalantzis and Jean-François Ouvrard

A EUR 10 rise in the price of oil results in a 0.4% increase in consumer prices in France and the euro area. A significant part of this rise can be attributed to the non-energy components of the consumer price index. This indirect effect amounts to 0.1 percentage point in the euro area and 0.15 percentage point in France.

Actual inflation and inflation simulated with a constant oil price in the euro area (% change, yoy) Source: Eurostat, authors' calculations. Note: at each date, the oil price is assumed to be constant over the two previous years.
Updated on 02/20/2020 16:17

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