Bruno Crepon

Mines Paris, PSL University | ParisTech · Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique (CREST)

We assess whether imperfect knowledge of labor regulation hinders job creation at small and medium-sized firms. We partner with a labor law expert organization that provides information about labor regulation via newsletters and access to a specialized website. We randomly assign 1,800 firms to get access to this service for a 21-week period. Six m...

Traditional apprenticeships based on private arrangements are widespread in developing countries. Public interventions have attempted to address failures in the apprenticeship markets to expand access or improve training quality. Subsidized dual apprenticeships have the potential to address financial constraints for youths and firms' inability to c...

Cette seconde édition offre une présentation com-plète et approfondie des techniques économé-triques les plus utilisées dans la pratique, allant du modèle linéaire et ses extensions aux techniques non linéaires de traitement des données discrètes et cen-surées. Pour ce faire, les techniques présentées et démontrées sont systématiquement illustrées...

We study the role of notifications in the evaluation of training programs for unemployed workers. Using a unique administrative data set containing the dates when information is exchanged between job seekers and caseworkers, we address three questions: Do information shocks, such as notification of future training, have an effect on unemployment du...

Introduction Prenatal care is recommended during pregnancy to improve neonatal and maternal outcomes. Women of lower socioeconomic status (SES) are less compliant to recommended prenatal care and suffer a higher risk of adverse perinatal outcomes. Several attempts to encourage optimal pregnancy follow-up have shown controversial results, particular...

Active labor market policies are massively used with the objective being to improve labor market outcomes of individuals out of work. Many observational evaluation studies have been published. In this review, we critically assess policy effectiveness. We emphasize insights from recent randomized controlled trials. In addition, we examine policy eff...

We evaluate an experimental program in which the French public employment service anonymized résumés for firms that were hiring. Firms were free to participate or not; participating firms were then randomly assigned to receive either anonymous résumés or name-bearing ones. We find that participating firms become less likely to interview and hire mi...

We report results from a randomized evaluation of a microcredit program introduced in rural areas of Morocco in 2006. Thirteen percent of the households in treatment villages took a loan, and none in control villages did. Among households identified as more likely to borrow, microcredit access led to a significant rise in investment in assets used...

This paper reports the results from a randomized evaluation of a microcredit program introduced in rural areas of Morocco starting in 2006 by Al Amana, the country’s largest microfinance institution. Al Amana was the only MFI operating in the study areas during the evaluation period. Thirteen percent of the households in treatment villages took a l...

Job-Search Assistance Program We analyze the results from three randomized controlled trials conducted in France between 2006 and 2010 in order to evaluate programs aiming at providing job-search assistance to job seekers. Several conclusions may be useful for the design of programs in the future. In particular, compared to the cost, the benefits o...

In this paper we discuss how the " encouragement design "used in randomized controlled trials can be extended to a setting with two treatments and one control group. Conditions to interpret the Two-Stage Least Squares (TSLS) estimates causally are stronger than in the case with only one treatment and one control group. A rst case where a causal int...

Contracting out public services to private firms has ambiguous effects when quality is imperfectly observable. Using a randomized experiment over a national sample in France, we compare the efficiency of the public employment service (PES) vs. private providers in delivering very similar job-search intensive counseling. The impact of each program i...

We propose a novel selectivity correction procedure to deal with survey attrition, at the crossroads of the "Heckit" and of the bounding approach of Lee (2009). As a substitute for the instrument needed in sample selectivity correction models, we use information on the number of attempts that were made to obtain response to the survey from each ind...

This article reports the results from a randomized experiment designed to evaluate the direct and indirect (displacement) impacts of job placement assistance on the labor market outcomes of young, educated job seekers in France. We use a two-step design. In the first step, the proportions of job seekers to be assigned to treatment (0%, 25%, 50%, 75...

http://www.crest.fr/ckfinder/userfiles/files/pageperso/rapport_eval_CVA_20110320.pdf

In this paper we apply the statistical framework recently proposed by (Imbens 1999) and (Lechner 1999) to identify the causal effects of multiple treatments under the conditional independence assumption. We show that under this assumption, matching with respect to the ratio of the scores allows to estimate nonparametrically the average conditional...

Does completing a household survey change the later behavior of those surveyed? In three field studies of health and two of microlending, we randomly assigned subjects to be surveyed about health and/or household finances and then measured subsequent use of a related product with data that does not rely on subjects' self-reports. In the three healt...

When treatments may occur at different points in time, most evaluation methods assume – implicitly or explicitly – that all the information used by subjects about the occurrence of a future treatment is available to the researcher. This is often called the “no anticipation” assumption. In reality, subjects may receive private signals about the date...

Ce manuel offre une présentation complète et approfondie des techniques économétriques les plus utilisées dans la pratique, allant du modèle linéaire et ses extensions aux techniques non-linéaires de traitement des données discrètes et censurées. Pour ce faire, les techniques présentées, et démontrées, sont systématiquement illustrées par des exemp...

Ce rapport analyse l'impact de deux dispositifs d'accompagnement renforc é des demandeurs d'emploi : la prise en charge d él égu ée a des opérateurs priv és de placement (OPP) par l'Un edic, et le dispositif Cap vers l'entreprise (CVE) mis en oeuvre par l'ANPE. Ces deux programmes ont et e d eploy és à titre exp érimental pendant l'ann ée 2007 et l...

The randomized trial literature has helped to renew the field of microeconometric policy evaluation by emphasizing identification issues raised by endogenous program participation. Measurement and attrition issues have perhaps received less attention. This paper analyzes the dramatic impact of sample attrition in a large job search experiment. We t...

This paper implements a method to identify and estimate treatment effects in a dynamic setting where treatments may occur at any point in time. By relating the standard matching approach to the timing-of-events approach, it demonstrates that effects of the treatment on the treated at a given date can be identified even though non-treated may be tre...

The issue is about OECD’S strategy about contuining training. OECD is recommending a continue accumulation of human capital reinforcing the incentives towards the firms and the individuals to invest in human capital. Data agree the OECD analysis about a non equal access to continuing training, but it is not true concerning policies efficacy. This a...

This chapter examines workweek reductions experiments in France. Using the 1982 workweek reduction, it is shown that work-sharing policies, per se, do not work. Put differently, they are not apt to work as long as wage subsidies are not offered to the firms. Their impact of employment and production is then shown using the experience of the experim...

French firms laying off workers aged 50 and above have to pay a tax to the unemployment insurance system, known as the Delalande tax. We evaluate the impact of this tax on layoffs as well as on hiring, taking advantage of several changes in the measure since its introduction in 1987.A legislative change in 1992 exempted firms from the tax for worke...

Les expérimentations constituent un outil performant pour mesurer les effets des dispositifs publics. Trois exemples types de schémas possibles de mise en oeuvre d'évaluation par expérimentation sont ici présentés. La rigueur du tirage aléatoire pour sélectionner la population, le suivi de la situation des individus intégrés dans le programme et la...

This paper develops and implements a method to identify and estimate treatment effects in a dynamic setting where treatments may occur at any point in time. By combining the standard matching approach to the timing-of-events approach, it demonstrates that the effect of the treatment on the treated at a given date can be identified although non-trea...

During the last twenty years a large empirical literature has been devoted to the effect of health insurance on medical care utilization. Developments in contract theory have shown that if part of the risk is private information, agents will self select on the basis of this private information and a positive correlation between risk and coverage sh...

Econometric evaluations of public-sponsored training programmes generally find little evidence of an impact of such policies on transition rates out of unemployment. We perform the first evaluation of training effects for the unemployed adults in France, exploiting a unique longitudinal dataset from the unemployment insurance system. Using the so-c...

Cet article propose une revue des développements récents dans le domaine des méthodes micro-économétriques d'évaluation. Dans cette littérature, le model statistique de référence est le model causal de Rubin, dont nous rappelons ici les hypothèses. Ce model est uncadre adapté pour définir et étudier les conditions d'identification de l'effet, parex...

Cet article propose une revue des développements récents dans le domaine des méthodes micro-économétriques d'évaluation. Dans cette littérature, le model statistique de référence est le model causal de Rubin, dont nous rappelons ici les hypothèses. Ce model est uncadre adapté pour définir et étudier les conditions d'identification de l'effet, parex...

French firms laying off workers aged 50 and above have to pay a tax to the unemployment insurance system, known as the Delalande tax. This is a rare case of experience rating in the European context. We evaluate its impact on layoffs as well as on hiring, taking advantage of several changes in the measure since its introduction in 1987. A legislati...

The control function in the semiparametric selection model is zero at infinity. This paper proposes additional restrictions of the same type and shows how to use them to test assumed exclusion restrictions necessary for root N estimation of the model. The test is based on the estimated control function and its derivative and takes the form of a GMM...

This article evaluates the effects of intensive counseling schemes that are provided to about 20% of the unemployed since the 2001 French unemployment policy reform (PARE). Several of the schemes are dedicated at improving the quality of assignment of workers to jobs. As a result, it is necessary to assess their impact on unemployment recurrence as...

French firms laying off workers aged 50 and above have to pay a tax to the unemployment insurance system, known as the Delalande tax. This is an original case of experience rating in the European context, restricted to older workers, whose employment prospects are particularly bad. We evaluate its impact on layoff (firing) as well as on hiring, tak...

We have implemented a new methodology in order to examine the effect of Information Technologies (IT) on Multifactor Productivity (MFP) at the firm level. Although the skill biased technical change hypothesis has received a lot of empirical support, previous studies typically assumed that input efficiencies were affected homogeneously. We relax thi...

This paper presents a model for estimating both the magnitude of price-cost margins and the extent of rent sharing. The model generalizes Robert Hall's model, relating the conventional measure of total factor productivity (the "Solow residual") to the degree of imperfect competition in product markets, by also allowing for the possibility of imperf...

We evaluate the impact of bank loans and start-up subsidies on the survival of the new firms. This work relies on the SINE94 survey that provides rich information on the entrepreneurs and their start-up projects. We use the propensity score matching methodology, in the case of multiple treatments, in order to evaluate the difference between the sur...

Dans cette étude, nous estimons l’évolution de la productivité avec l’âge via la «contribution» des différentes classes d’âge à la productivité des entreprises. La productivité des salariés croît jusqu’à 40 ou 45 ans, avant de se stabiliser. Nous n’observons pas de diminution de la productivité en fin de carrière, du moins pas avant 55 ans. Le prof...

[spa] Contribución Delalande y transiciones en el mercado laboral . . Instaurada en 1987, la contribución Delalande es una tasa que trata de evitar que las empresas despidan a los trabajadores de más de 50 años. Semejante dispositivo puede con todo tener unos efectos perversos. Este puede en particular hacer que las empresas dejen de contratar a tr...

The study assesses the development of productivity according to age through the various age-groups' contribution to firms' productivity. It increases with age until 40-45 then remains stable. There is no decrease in productivity towards career's end, at least not before the age of 55. Productivity profiles follow closely those of wages. There is no...

[fre] RTT, productivité et emploi: nouvelles estimations sur données d’entreprises . . Les données individuelles d’entreprises permettent . a priori de mesurer l’effet de la RTT sur l’emploi au travers de la comparaison entre entreprises passées à 35 heures et entreprises restées à 39 heures. Une telle comparaison doit porter sur des entreprises au...

We investigate the relationship between wages, productivity, and workercharacteristics using a new exhaustive matched employer–employee longitudinaldataset for France. Expanding on the methodology originally proposed byHellerstein, Neumark and Troske (1999), we relax their hypotheses and providea new method using cost for the employer. Interestingl...

This study examines the effect of Information Technologies (IT) on firms productivity. A new methodology is implemented in order to address this issue. Up to now studies have assumed that inputs efficiencies are affected homogeneously although the skill biased technical change hypothesis has received a lot of empirical support. On the contrary our...

In this study, we provide an estimation of the average age-productivity profile in the French private sector. The relative productivity of groups of workers is estimated through the relationship between a firms productivity and the age structure of its labour force. We find that productivity rises with age up to 40, then remains quite stable afterw...

[fre] Nous évaluons de façon conjointe les différences de productivité et de rémunération existant en France entre diverses catégories de travailleurs au moyen d'une nouvelle base de données qui réunit des informations tant sur les employés que sur leurs employeurs. Complétant une méthodologie nouvelle proposée au départ par Heller- stein, Neumark...

[fre] Ralentissement de la productivité et réallocations d’emplois: deux régimes de croissance . . On rapproche l’évolution de la productivité de l’évolution de l’emploi, au cours de deux périodes de croissance soutenue (1987-1990 et 1996-1999). Cette comparaison est effectuée à partir de données individuelles d’entreprises, en distinguant la contr...

[spa] La productividad de los asalariados de más edad: un ensayo de estimación . . En un promedio, los salarios aumentan con la edad del asalariado. Lo natural es preguntarse si los salarios más altos de los trabajadores de más edad corresponden o no a una productividad más alta. La respuesta no carece de consecuencia sobre la empleabilidad de dich...

In this article we evaluate the contribution of information and communication technologies (ICT) to the growth of value added during the past 15 years in France. Following North American studies, we use traditional growth accounting methods to assess the relative size of two types of contribution: on the one hand the effect of the use of informatio...

We investigate the effects of the February 1, 1982, mandatory reduction of weekly working hours in France. Just after François Mitterrand's election in 1981, the minimum wage was increased by 5 percent. The workweek was then reduced from 40 to 39 hours. At the same time, stable monthly earnings for minimum-wage earners were mandated. We show that w...

[fre] Les entreprises et la baisse du prix des ordinateurs . Une analyse microéconomique par la fonction de production . . Les entreprises ont bénéficié de fortes baisses des prix des équipements informatiques dans les dernières décennies. L’objet de cet article est de mesurer l’effet de ces baisses sur un ensemble de caractéristiques de l’entrepri...

We study the effects of the attrition of firms from longitudinal samples on the estimates of dynamic labor demand models. The reasons for attrition from business-based longitudinal samples are extremely varied and are related to both the economic activity of the business and the methods of acquiring sampling frame information for those businesses....

[fre] Une mesure du coût du capital sur données individuelles d’entreprises qui distingue le coût du financement par fonds propres du coût de financement par endettement montre que la dispersion du coût d’usage du capital est relativement élevée. Cette dispersion s’explique, d’une part, par la forte hétérogénéité des structures de financement et, d...

[fre] Instaurés à partir de 1993, les dispositifs d’allégement de charges sur les bas salaires ont connu un développement important en 1995 et 1996, au point de devenir aujourd’hui un instrument central de la politique pour l’emploi. Leur impact sur l’économie a fait jusqu’ici l’objet d’évaluations ex ante, au moyen de modèles macroéconomiques trad...

[fre] La caractéristique la plus frappante des comportements d’investissement des entreprises est leur forte hétérogénéité. Une des explications le plus souvent avancée tient compte de l’interaction forte entre la décision d’investissement d’une entreprise et les conditions auxquelles elle peut se financer, conditions qui dépendent énormément de se...

In this paper we apply the statistical framework developed by Imbens (1998) and Lechner (1999) to identify and to estimate the causal effects of multiple treatments under the conditional independence assumption. The example concerns youth employment programs which were set up in France during the eighties to improve the labor market prospects of th...

In this paper we apply the statistical framework recently proposed by Imbens (1999) and Lechner (1999) to identify the causal effects of multiple treatments under the conditional independence assumption. We show that under this assumption, matching with respect to the ratio of the scores allows to estimate nonparametrically the average conditional...

[fre] Les modèles classiques de décomposition de la croissance permettent d’estimer deux types de contribution: d’une part, l’effet de la diffusion de l’informatique stricto sensu . sur la croissance, par accumulation de capital informatique dans tous les secteurs de l’économie; d’autre part, la contribution à la croissance des gains de productivit...

[ger] Die Rentabilität der Innovation, das heißt die Produktivitätsge-winne der Unternehmen, die der Forschung zuzuschreiben sind, kann nach zwei Methoden bewertet werden. Bei der ersten - der traditionelleren - wird eine bestimmte Anzahl angemeldeter Patente herangezogen; sie ist jedoch unzulänglich, da die Entscheidung, eine Innovation patentiere...

L'idee que la reduction du temps de travail hebdomadaire puisse etre une solution a la crise de l'emploi progresse tant dans l'opinion publique que dans l'esprit des politiciens. En 1998, le gouvernement francais a adopte une politique " imposant " aux entreprises de passer aux 35 heures en l'an 2000. Les entreprises francaises ont negocie ou, pour...

We use longitudinal individual wage, hours, and employment data to investigate the effect of the 1981 mandatory reduction of weekly working hours in France. A few months after François Mitterrand's election of May 1981, the government, applying its programme decided first to increase the minimum wage by 5% and, second, to reduce weekly working hour...

We use longitudinal individual wage, hours, and employment data to investi gate the effect of the 1981 mandatory reduction of weekly working hours in France.

This paper analyzes the relationship between banks’ divergent strategies toward specialization and diversification of financial activities and their ability to withstand a banking sector crash. We first generate market-based measures of banks’ systemic risk exposures using extreme value analysis. Systemic banking risk is measured as the tail be...

Nous utilisons des données longitudinales sur l'emploi, les salaires et les heures de travail afin d'examiner les effets de la réduction obligatoire de la durée du travail hebdomadaire intervenue en 1981 en France. Quelques mois après l'élection de François Mitterrand en mai 1981, le gouvernement, en application de son programme, décida tout d'abor...

This paper studies the links between productivity, innovation and research at the firm level. We introduce three new features: (i) A structural model that explains productivity by innovation output, and innovation output by research investment: (ii) New data on French manufacturing firms, including the number of European patents and the percentage...

We present a method that accommodates missing data in longitudinal datasets of the type usually encountered in economic and social applications. The technique uses various extensions of missing at random' assumptions that we customize for dynamic models. Our method, applicable to longitudinal data on persons or firms, is implemented using the Gener...

This paper focuses on the relationship between the research and development (R&D) expenditures undertaken by firms and the number of patents claimed by them. The econometric methods we use incorporate two important features of the data. First, we introduce a heterogeneity term accounting for the unobservable factors affecting the production of inno...

In general, when one considers a set of orthogonality conditions, the parameters can be divided into parameters of interest that the econometrician wants to estimate — the coefficient of the lagged endogenous variable in the case of an autoregressive error component (AREC) model, for instance, — and nuisance parameters — most of the second-order te...

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the patent equation, an empirical counterpart to the 'knowledge-production function'. Innovation output is measured through the number of European patent applications and the input by research capital, in a panel of French manufacturing firms. Estimating the innovation function raises specific issues related...

The aim of this paper is to try to understand why during the early 90’s the strong deterioration of French public deficits is associated with a strong increase in private savings which has contributed to blunt the responsiveness of economic activity to fiscal policy. Many explanations are explored and tested: precautionary motives linked with worri...

In this chapter, we present the general approach proposed by Chamberlain for the analysis of panel data. The materials we use originate in two papers: Chamberlain [1982] and Chamberlain [1984].1 Although the 1984 paper examines different kinds of models, including nonlinear ones such as probit or logit models for panel data, our concern here is onl...

We develop a model for decomposing the covariance structure of panel data on firms into a part due to permanent heterogeneity, a part due to differential histories with unknown ages, and a part due to the evolution of economic shocks to the firm. Our model allows for the endogenous death of firms and correctly handles the problems arising from the...

Schumpeter’s assessment of the role of innovative activity in economic development led him to original conjectures concerning the importance of market power and firm size in stimulating firms’ innovative activity. Empirical testing of these conjectures mainly relies on two interpretations of them, namely that innovative activity increases with mark...