Cette thèse étudie dans une perspective comparée les modalités du travail de représentation en matière d’impôt sur la fortune, au Bundestag et à l’Assemblée nationale. S’appuyant sur des approches empiriques complémentaires (entretiens semi-directs, observation non-participante, bases de données prosopographiques, travail d’archive codé), cette enquête entend expliquer la variété des pratiques constatées. La recherche montre que les débats en matière d’impôt sur la fortune se caractérisent par la place centrale prise par les mondes de l’entreprise, faisant émerger le constat d’une forme d’inégalité d’accès à la parole parlementaire pour les groupes sociaux cités au sein des deux Assemblées. L’enquête souligne également que les députés développent des pratiques différenciées entre groupes en utilisant plusieurs registres de représentation visant à justifier et légitimer les différents modes d’investissement observables dans les deux pays. Face à ce constat, cette étude entend proposer un examen des causes des phénomènes observés. Plus d’une trentaine de facteurs explicatifs sont ainsi pris en compte, à des niveaux micro, méso et macrosociologiques (histoire politique, dispositions individuelles, processus de socialisation politique, économique et professionnelle, influence des entourages, effets de positions et de contextes, etc.). La thèse montre alors que les pratiques de représentation sont le résultat de l’articulation d’un système de facteurs qui interdisent de penser ces pratiques de façon réifiée. En cherchant à comprendre la complexité et l’intrication de nombreux éléments intervenant dans les prises de position des élus, la thèse cherche à démêler les fils explicatifs de l’écheveau des pratiques de représentation. / This thesis aims at analysing the methods of representing during wealth tax debates in the French Assemblée nationale and in the German Bundestag. Based on empirical researches (semi-direct interviews, non-participating observations, prosopographic data, coded archival work), this research aspires to explain the variety of identified practices. The research shows on one hand that debates around wealth tax are characterized by the central position of concerns and businesses, highlighting the following acknowledgment: the inequity in accessing speaking time for social groups mentioned in both Parliaments. The thesis also underlines that members of parliament develop differentiated practices between groups by using multiple register of representation, which aim at justifying and legitimating all the different ways of commitment observed in both countries.Facing this observation, the thesis strive to provide a review of the causes of the observed phenomena. More than thirty explanatory factors are taken into consideration on micro, meso and macro sociological levels (political history, individual provisions, political/economical/professional socialisation processes, influence of close circle, effects of positions and environment). The thesis therefore demonstrates that the practices of representation are the result of a very high number of diversifying factors, which prevent from thinking those practices on a reified way. While trying to understand the complexity of new elements intervening in elected representatives’ position statements, the thesis aspires to untangle the explanatory threads of political representation. / Diese Doktorarbeit vergleicht die Modalitäten der politischen Repräsentation in Bezug auf die Vermögensteuer im Bundestag und in der Assemblée nationale. Die Recherche will Erklärungen geben für die Vielfalt der hierbei beobachteten Praktiken. Dafür stützt sie sich auf komplementäre empirische Materialien (Gespräche, Beobachtungen, prosoprographische Daten, codierte Archivarbeit). Die vorliegende Arbeit zeigt, dass die Debatten um die Vermögensteuer durch die zentrale Stellung der Unternehmen geprägt sind. Es existiert eine Form von ungleichem Zugang zur parlamentarischen Rede für die sozialen Gruppen innerhalb der beiden Versammlungen. Oft werden bestimmte soziale Gruppen einfach ignoriert. Die Studie verweist auch darauf, dass die Abgeordneten Praktiken von differenzierter Repräsentation zwischen Gruppen entwickeln, indem sie mehrere Register der Repräsentation benutzen, die darauf aus sind, verschiedene Modi der Investitionen zu rechtfertigen und zu legitimieren- in beiden Ländern. Vor diesem Hintergrund bietet diese Arbeit eine Analyse der Gründe der beobachteten Phänomene an. Dazu werden mehr als dreißig explikative Faktoren unter micro-, meso- und makrosoziologischen Gesichtspunkten untersucht (politische Geschichte, individuelle Dispositionen, Prozesse politischer, ökonomischer und professioneller Sozialisierung, Einflüsse des Umfelds, Einflüsse von institutionellen Positionen und Kontexten usw.). Diese Doktorarbeit will nachweisen, dass die Praktiken der Repräsentation das Ergebnis eines sehr hohen Anteils verschiedener Faktoren sind, die es untersagen diese Praktiken gedanklich zu verfestigen. Indem wir versuchen, die Komplexität und die Verstrickung der zahlreichen Elemente zu verstehen, die in den Stellungnahmen der Abgeordneten zum Ausdruck kommen, will diese Doktorarbeit die erklärenden Fäden des Knäuels der Repräsentationspraktiken entwirren.

The active use of macroeconomic policies to smooth economic fluctuations and, as a<p>consequence, the stance that policymakers should adopt over the business cycle, remain<p>controversial issues in the economic literature.<p>In the light of the dramatic experience of the early 1930s’ Great Depression, Keynes (1936)<p>argued that the market mechanism could not be relied upon to spontaneously recover from<p>a slump, and advocated counter-cyclical public spending and monetary policy to stimulate<p>demand. Albeit the Keynesian doctrine had largely influenced policymaking during<p>the two decades following World War II, it began to be seriously challenged in several<p>directions since the start of the 1970s. The introduction of rational expectations within<p>macroeconomic models implied that aggregate demand management could not stabilize<p>the economy’s responses to shocks (see in particular Sargent and Wallace (1975)). According<p>to this view, in fact, rational agents foresee the effects of the implemented policies, and<p>wage and price expectations are revised upwards accordingly. Therefore, real wages and<p>money balances remain constant and so does output. Within such a conceptual framework,<p>only unexpected policy interventions would have some short-run effects upon the economy.<p>The "real business cycle (RBC) theory", pioneered by Kydland and Prescott (1982), offered<p>an alternative explanation on the nature of fluctuations in economic activity, viewed<p>as reflecting the efficient responses of optimizing agents to exogenous sources of fluctuations, outside the direct control of policymakers. The normative implication was that<p>there should be no role for economic policy activism: fiscal and monetary policy should be<p>acyclical. The latest generation of New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium<p>(DSGE) models builds on rigorous foundations in intertemporal optimizing behavior by<p>consumers and firms inherited from the RBC literature, but incorporates some frictions<p>in the adjustment of nominal and real quantities in response to macroeconomic shocks<p>(see Woodford (2003)). In such a framework, not only policy "surprises" may have an<p>impact on the economic activity, but also the way policymakers "systematically" respond<p>to exogenous sources of fluctuation plays a fundamental role in affecting the economic<p>activity, thereby rekindling interest in the use of counter-cyclical stabilization policies to<p>fine tune the business cycle.<p>Yet, despite impressive advances in the economic theory and econometric techniques, there are no definitive answers on the systematic stance policymakers should follow, and on the<p>effects of macroeconomic policies upon the economy. Against this background, the present thesis attempts to inspect the interrelations between macroeconomic policies and the economic activity from novel angles. Three contributions<p>are proposed. <p><p>In the first Chapter, I show that relying on the information actually available to policymakers when budgetary decisions are taken is of fundamental importance for the assessment of the cyclical stance of governments. In the second, I explore whether the effectiveness of fiscal shocks in spurring the economic activity has declined since the beginning of the 1970s. In the third, the impact of systematic monetary policies over U.S. industrial sectors is investigated. In the existing literature, empirical assessments of the historical stance of policymakers over the economic cycle have been mainly drawn from the estimation of "reduced-form" policy reaction functions (see in particular Taylor (1993) and Galì and Perotti (2003)). Such rules typically relate a policy instrument (a reference short-term interest rate or an indicator of discretionary fiscal policy) to a set of explanatory variables (notably inflation, the output gap and the debt-GDP ratio, as long as fiscal policy is concerned). Although these policy rules can be seen as simple approximations of what derived from an explicit optimization problem solved by social planners (see Kollmann (2007)), they received considerable attention since they proved to track the behavior of central banks and fiscal<p>policymakers relatively well. Typically, revised data, i.e. observations available to the<p>econometrician when the study is carried out, are used in the estimation of such policy<p>reaction functions. However, data available in "real-time" to policymakers may end up<p>to be remarkably different from what it is observed ex-post. Orphanides (2001), in an<p>innovative and thought-provoking paper on the U.S. monetary policy, challenged the way<p>policy evaluation was conducted that far by showing that unrealistic assumptions about<p>the timeliness of data availability may yield misleading descriptions of historical policy.<p>In the spirit of Orphanides (2001), in the first Chapter of this thesis I reconsider how<p>the intentional cyclical stance of fiscal authorities should be assessed. Importantly, in<p>the framework of fiscal policy rules, not only variables such as potential output and the<p>output gap are subject to measurement errors, but also the main discretionary "operating<p>instrument" in the hands of governments: the structural budget balance, i.e. the headline<p>government balance net of the effects due to automatic stabilizers. In fact, the actual<p>realization of planned fiscal measures may depend on several factors (such as the growth<p>rate of GDP, the implementation lags that often follow the adoption of many policy<p>measures, and others more) outside the direct and full control of fiscal authorities. Hence,<p>there might be sizeable differences between discretionary fiscal measures as planned in the<p>past and what it is observed ex-post. To be noted, this does not apply to monetary policy<p>since central bankers can control their operating interest rates with great accuracy.<p>When the historical behavior of fiscal authorities is analyzed from a real-time perspective, it emerges that the intentional stance has been counter-cyclical, especially during expansions, in the main OECD countries throughout the last thirteen years. This is at<p>odds with findings based on revised data, generally pointing to pro-cyclicality (see for example Gavin and Perotti (1997)). It is shown that empirical correlations among revision<p>errors and other second-order moments allow to predict the size and the sign of the bias<p>incurred in estimating the intentional stance of the policy when revised data are (mistakenly)<p>used. It addition, formal tests, based on a refinement of Hansen (1999), do not reject<p>the hypothesis that the intentional reaction of fiscal policy to the cycle is characterized by<p>two regimes: one counter-cyclical, when output is above its potential level, and the other<p>acyclical, in the opposite case. On the contrary, the use of revised data does not allow to identify any threshold effect.<p><p>The second and third Chapters of this thesis are devoted to the exploration of the impact<p>of fiscal and monetary policies upon the economy.<p>Over the last years, two approaches have been mainly followed by practitioners for the<p>estimation of the effects of macroeconomic policies on the real activity. On the one hand,<p>calibrated and estimated DSGE models allow to trace out the economy’s responses to<p>policy disturbances within an analytical framework derived from solid microeconomic<p>foundations. On the other, vector autoregressive (VAR) models continue to be largely<p>used since they have proved to fit macro data particularly well, albeit they cannot fully<p>serve to inspect structural interrelations among economic variables.<p>Yet, the typical DSGE and VAR models are designed to handle a limited number of variables<p>and are not suitable to address economic questions potentially involving a large<p>amount of information. In a DSGE framework, in fact, identifying aggregate shocks and<p>their propagation mechanism under a plausible set of theoretical restrictions becomes a<p>thorny issue when many variables are considered. As for VARs, estimation problems may<p>arise when models are specified in a large number of indicators (although latest contributions suggest that large-scale Bayesian VARs perform surprisingly well in forecasting.<p>See in particular Banbura, Giannone and Reichlin (2007)). As a consequence, the growing<p>popularity of factor models as effective econometric tools allowing to summarize in<p>a parsimonious and flexible manner large amounts of information may be explained not<p>only by their usefulness in deriving business cycle indicators and forecasting (see for example<p>Reichlin (2002) and D’Agostino and Giannone (2006)), but also, due to recent<p>developments, by their ability in evaluating the response of economic systems to identified<p>structural shocks (see Giannone, Reichlin and Sala (2002) and Forni, Giannone, Lippi<p>and Reichlin (2007)). Parallelly, some attempts have been made to combine the rigor of<p>DSGE models and the tractability of VAR ones, with the advantages of factor analysis<p>(see Boivin and Giannoni (2006) and Bernanke, Boivin and Eliasz (2005)).<p><p>The second Chapter of this thesis, based on a joint work with Agnès Bénassy-Quéré, presents an original study combining factor and VAR analysis in an encompassing framework,<p>to investigate how "unexpected" and "unsystematic" variations in taxes and government<p>spending feed through the economy in the home country and abroad. The domestic<p>impact of fiscal shocks in Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. and cross-border fiscal spillovers<p>from Germany to seven European economies is analyzed. In addition, the time evolution of domestic and cross-border tax and spending multipliers is explored. In fact, the way fiscal policy impacts on domestic and foreign economies<p>depends on several factors, possibly changing over time. In particular, the presence of excess<p>capacity, accommodating monetary policy, distortionary taxation and liquidity constrained<p>consumers, plays a prominent role in affecting how fiscal policies stimulate the<p>economic activity in the home country. The impact on foreign output crucially depends<p>on the importance of trade links, on real exchange rates and, in a monetary union, on<p>the sensitiveness of foreign economies to the common interest rate. It is well documented<p>that the last thirty years have witnessed frequent changes in the economic environment.<p>For instance, in most OECD countries, the monetary policy stance became less accommodating<p>in the 1980s compared to the 1970s, and more accommodating again in the<p>late 1990s and early 2000s. Moreover, financial markets have been heavily deregulated.<p>Hence, fiscal policy might have lost (or gained) power as a stimulating tool in the hands<p>of policymakers. Importantly, the issue of cross-border transmission of fiscal policy decisions is of the utmost relevance in the framework of the European Monetary Union and this explains why the debate on fiscal policy coordination has received so much attention since the adoption<p>of the single currency (see Ahearne, Sapir and Véron (2006) and European Commission<p>(2006)). It is found that over the period 1971 to 2004 tax shocks have generally been more effective in spurring domestic output than government spending shocks. Interestingly, the inclusion of common factors representing global economic phenomena yields to smaller multipliers<p>reconciling, at least for the U.K. the evidence from large-scale macroeconomic models,<p>generally finding feeble multipliers (see e.g. European Commission’s QUEST model), with<p>the one from a prototypical structural VAR pointing to stronger effects of fiscal policy.<p>When the estimation is performed recursively over samples of seventeen years of data, it<p>emerges that GDP multipliers have dropped drastically from early 1990s on, especially<p>in Germany (tax shocks) and in the U.S. (both tax and government spending shocks).<p>Moreover, the conduct of fiscal policy seems to have become less erratic, as documented<p>by a lower variance of fiscal shocks over time, and this might contribute to explain why<p>business cycles have shown less volatility in the countries under examination.<p>Expansionary fiscal policies in Germany do not generally have beggar-thy-neighbor effects<p>on other European countries. In particular, our results suggest that tax multipliers have<p>been positive but vanishing for neighboring countries (France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria), weak and mostly not significant for more remote ones (the U.K.<p>and Spain). Cross-border government spending multipliers are found to be monotonically<p>weak for all the subsamples considered.<p>Overall these findings suggest that fiscal "surprises", in the form of unexpected reductions in taxation and expansions in government consumption and investment, have become progressively less successful in stimulating the economic activity at the domestic level, indicating that, in the framework of the European Monetary Union, policymakers can only marginally rely on this discretionary instrument as a substitute for national monetary policies. <p><p>The objective of the third chapter is to inspect the role of monetary policy in the U.S. business cycle. In particular, the effects of "systematic" monetary policies upon several industrial sectors is investigated. The focus is on the systematic, or endogenous, component of monetary policy (i.e. the one which is related to the economic activity in a stable and predictable way), for three main reasons. First, endogenous monetary policies are likely to have sizeable real effects, if agents’ expectations are not perfectly rational and if there are some nominal and real frictions in a market. Second, as widely documented, the variability of the monetary instrument and of the main macro variables is only marginally explained by monetary "shocks", defined as unexpected and exogenous variations in monetary conditions. Third, monetary shocks can be simply interpreted as measurement errors (see Christiano, Eichenbaum<p>and Evans (1998)). Hence, the systematic component of monetary policy is likely to have played a fundamental role in affecting business cycle fluctuations. The strategy to isolate the impact of systematic policies relies on a counterfactual experiment, within a (calibrated or estimated) macroeconomic model. As a first step, a macroeconomic shock to which monetary policy is likely to respond should be selected,<p>and its effects upon the economy simulated. Then, the impact of such shock should be<p>evaluated under a “policy-inactive” scenario, assuming that the central bank does not respond<p>to it. Finally, by comparing the responses of the variables of interest under these<p>two scenarios, some evidence on the sensitivity of the economic system to the endogenous<p>component of the policy can be drawn (see Bernanke, Gertler and Watson (1997)).<p>Such kind of exercise is first proposed within a stylized DSGE model, where the analytical<p>solution of the model can be derived. However, as argued, large-scale multi-sector DSGE<p>models can be solved only numerically, thus implying that the proposed experiment cannot<p>be carried out. Moreover, the estimation of DSGE models becomes a thorny issue when many variables are incorporated (see Canova and Sala (2007)). For these arguments, a less “structural”, but more tractable, approach is followed, where a minimal amount of<p>identifying restrictions is imposed. In particular, a factor model econometric approach<p>is adopted (see in particular Giannone, Reichlin and Sala (2002) and Forni, Giannone,<p>Lippi and Reichlin (2007)). In this framework, I develop a technique to perform the counterfactual experiment needed to assess the impact of systematic monetary policies.<p>It is found that 2 and 3-digit SIC U.S. industries are characterized by very heterogeneous degrees of sensitivity to the endogenous component of the policy. Notably, the industries showing the strongest sensitivities are the ones producing durable goods and metallic<p>materials. Non-durable good producers, food, textile and lumber producing industries are<p>the least affected. In addition, it is highlighted that industrial sectors adjusting prices relatively infrequently are the most "vulnerable" ones. In fact, firms in this group are likely to increase quantities, rather than prices, following a shock positively hitting the economy. Finally, it emerges that sectors characterized by a higher recourse to external sources to finance investments, and sectors investing relatively more in new plants and machineries, are the most affected by endogenous monetary actions. / Doctorat en sciences économiques, Orientation économie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This thesis is composed of three distinct but related essays. The first essay studies the role of the size of the economy in mitigating the impact of public sector corruption on economic development. The analysis is based on a dynamic general equilibrium model in which growth occurs endogenously through the invention and manufacture of new intermediate goods that are used in the production of output. Potential innovators decide to enter the market considering the fraction of future profits that may be lost to corruption. We find that depending on the number of times bribes are demanded, the size of the economy may be an important factor in determining the effects of corruption on innovation and economic growth. The second essay presents an occupational choice model in which a household can choose either formal or informal entrepreneurship or at the subsistence livelihood. Credit market constraints and initial wealth conditions (bequest) determine an agent's occupational choice. Corruption arises when bureaucrats exchange investment permits for bribes. Corruption worsens credit market constraints. Equilibrium with corruption is characterised by an increase (decrease) in informal (formal) entrepreneurship and a decrease in formal entrepreneurship wealth. Since corruption-induced credit constrained households choose informal entrepreneurship as opposed to subsistence livelihood income in the formal sector, the informal economy is shown to mitigate the extent of income inequality. The third essay explains the role of bureaucratic corruption in undermining public service delivery, public finance, and economic development through incentivising tax evasion. The analysis is based on a dynamic general equilibrium model in which a taxable household observes the quality of public services and decides whether or not to fulfil his tax obligation. Bureaucratic corruption compromises the quality of public services such that a taxable household develops incentives to evade tax payment. We show that corruption-induced tax evasion increases the likelihood of a budget deficit, renders tax payable increase counter-productive, and aggravates the negative effect of bureaucratic corruption on economic development.

This thesis examines determinacy and E-stability of economic policy in monetary union models. Monetary policy takes the form of either a contemporaneous or a forecast based interest rate rule, while fiscal policy follows a contemporaneous government spending rule. In the absence of asymmetries, the results from the closed economy literature on learning are retained. However, when introducing asymmetries into monetary union frameworks, the determinacy and E-stability conditions for economic policy differ from both the closed and open economy cases. We find that a monetary union with heterogeneous price rigidities is more likely to be determinate and E-stable. Specifically, the Taylor principle, a key stability condition for the closed economy, is now relaxed. Furthermore, an interest rate rule that stabilizes the terms of trade in addition to output and inflation, is more likely to induce determinacy and local stability under RLS learning. If monetary policy is sufficiently aggressive in stabilizing the terms of trade, then determinacy and E-stability of the union economy can be achieved without direct stabilization of output and inflation. A fiscal policy rule that supports demand for domestic goods following a shock to competitiveness, can destabilize the union economy regardless of the interest rate rule employed by the union central bank. In this case, determinacy and E-stability conditions have to be simultaneously and independently met by both fiscal and monetary policy for the union economy to be stable. When fiscal policy instead stabilizes domestic output gaps while monetary policy stabilizes union output and inflation, fiscal policy directly affects the stability of monetary policy. A contemporaneous monetary policy rule has to be more aggressive to satisfy the Taylor principle, the more aggressive fiscal policy is. On the other hand, when monetary policy is forward looking, an aggressive fiscal policy rule can help induce determinacy.

本文以中國1997~2003年中央政府對地方政府之淨移轉支付為研究對象，運用量化之研究途徑，分析中國近年來中央政府資源分配之財政目標變化，以及影響此財政目標之主要因素。依據本文實證結果分析顯示，在1997~2003年這段期間，中國中央政府的財政資源分配方式由過去以穩定社會環境、發展整體經濟為主要目標，轉以均衡各地情況為主，於此同時，影響此財政資源分配模式之主要因素為區域政策之轉折，並推論中國區域政策的產出與執行，並非如一般所論，僅是領導人安定環境、攏絡民心的口頭宣示和空頭支票。 / Through examining the transfer payment from China’s central government to provincial government, this study seeks to discover the logic of financial resource allocation in China. It goes on to compare the modes of financial transfer in different years to see whether China has devoted more resources on income redistribution, and if so, which factor make that happen. My findings suggest that China does adjust the logic of resource allocation, shifting from pro-growth to pro-balance through these years. And, the key that trigger such change is the modification of regional policy instead of reshuffle of top leadership.

Dans le sillage de la récession mondiale de 2008-09, plusieurs questions ont été soulevées dans la littérature économique sur les effets à court et à long terme de la politique budgétaire sur l’activité économique par rapport à son signe, sa taille et sa durée. Ceux-ci ont des implications importantes pour mieux comprendre les canaux de transmission et l’efficacité des politiques budgétaires, avec la politique monétaire étant poursuivi, ainsi que pour leurs retombées économiques. Cette thèse fait partie de ce regain d’intérêt de la littérature d’examiner comment les changements dans la politique budgétaire affectent l’activité économique. Elle repose alors sur trois essais: les effets macroéconomiques des chocs de dépenses publiques et des recettes fiscales, les résultats macroéconomiques de l’interaction entre les politiques budgétaire et monétaire et le lien entre la politique budgétaire et la répartition des revenus. Le premier chapitre examine les effets des chocs de politique budgétaire (chocs de dépenses publiques et chocs de recettes fiscales) sur l’économie canadienne au cours de la période 1970-2010, en s’appuyant sur la méthode d’identification des restrictions de signe développée par Mountford et Uhlig [2009]. En réponse à la récession mondiale, les autorités fiscales dans les économies avancées, dont le Canada ont généralement mis en oeuvre une approche en deux phases pour la politique budgétaire. Tout d’abord, ils ont introduit des plans de relance sans précédent pour relancer leurs économies. Par exemple, les mesures de relance au Canada, introduites à travers le Plan d’action économique du Canada, ont été projetées à 3.2 pour cent du PIB dans le budget fédéral de 2009 tandis que l’ "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act"(ARRA) a été estimé à 7 pour cent du PIB. Par la suite, ils ont mis en place des plans d’ajustement en vue de réduire la dette publique et en assurer la soutenabilité à long terme. Dans ce contexte, évaluer les effets multiplicateurs de la politique budgétaire est important en vue d’informer sur l'efficacité de telles mesures dans la relance ou non de l'activité économique. Les résultats montrent que les multiplicateurs d'impôt varient entre 0.2 et 0.5, tandis que les multiplicateurs de dépenses varient entre 0.2 et 1.1. Les multiplicateurs des dépenses ont tendance à être plus grand que les multiplicateurs des recettes fiscales au cours des deux dernières décennies. Comme implications de politique économique, ces résultats tendent à suggérer que les ajustements budgétaires par le biais de grandes réductions de dépenses publiques pourraient être plus dommageable pour l'économie que des ajustements budgétaires par la hausse des impôts. Le deuxième chapitre, co-écrit avec Constant Lonkeng Ngouana, estime les effets multiplicateurs des dépenses publiques aux Etats-Unis en fonction du cycle de la politique monétaire. Les chocs de dépenses publiques sont identifiés comme étant des erreurs de prévision du taux de croissance des dépenses publiques à partir des données d'Enquêtes des prévisionnistes professionnels et des informations contenues dans le "Greenbook". L'état de la politique monétaire est déduite à partir de la déviation du taux des fonds fédéraux du taux cible de la Réserve Fédérale, en faisant recours à une fonction lisse de transition. L'application de la méthode des «projections locales» aux données trimestrielles américaines au cours de la période 1965-2012 suggère que les effets multiplicateurs des dépenses fédérales sont sensiblement plus élevées quand la politique monétaire est accommodante que lorsqu'elle ne l'est pas. Les résultats suggèrent aussi que les dépenses fédérales peuvent stimuler ou non la consommation privée, dépendamment du degré d’accommodation de la politique monétaire. Ce dernier résultat réconcilie ainsi, sur la base d’un cadre unifié des résultats autrement contradictoires à première vue dans la littérature. Ces résultats ont d'importantes implications de politique économique. Ils suggèrent globalement que la politique budgétaire est plus efficace lorsqu'on en a le plus besoin (par exemple, lorsque le taux de chômage est élevé), si elle est soutenue par la politique monétaire. Ils ont également des implications pour la normalisation des conditions monétaires dans les pays avancés: la sortie des politiques monétaires non-conventionnelles conduirait à des multiplicateurs de dépenses fédérales beaucoup plus faibles qu'autrement, même si le niveau de chômage restait élevé. Ceci renforce la nécessité d'une calibration prudente du calendrier de sortie des politiques monétaires non-conventionnelles. Le troisième chapitre examine l'impact des mesures d'expansion et de contraction budgétaire sur la distribution des revenus dans un panel de 18 pays d'Amérique latine au cours de la période 1990-2010, avec un accent sur les deniers 40 pour cent. Il explore alors comment ces mesures fiscales ainsi que leur composition affectent la croissance des revenus des dernier 40 pour cent, la croissance de leur part de revenu ainsi que la croissance économique. Les mesures d'expansion et de contraction budgétaire sont identifiées par des périodes au cours desquels il existe une variation significative du déficit primaire corrigé des variations conjoncturelles en pourcentage du PIB. Les résultats montrent qu'en moyenne l'expansion budgétaire par la hausse des dépenses publiques est plus favorable à la croissance des revenus des moins bien-nantis que celle par la baisse des impôts. Ce résultat est principalement soutenu par la hausse des dépenses gouvernementales de consommation courante, les transferts et subventions. En outre ces mesures d’expansion budgétaire sont favorables à la réduction des inégalités car elles permettent d'améliorer la part des revenus des moins bien-nantis tout en réduisant la part des revenus des mieux-nantis de la distribution des revenus. En outre ces mesures d’expansion budgétaire sont favorables à la réduction des inégalités car elles permettent d'améliorer la part des revenus des moins bien-nantis tout en réduisant la part des revenus des mieux-nantis de la distribution des revenus. Cependant, l'expansion budgétaire pourrait soit n'avoir aucun effet sur la croissance économique ou entraver cette dernière à travers la hausse des dépenses en capital. Les résultats relatifs à la contraction budgétaire sont quelque peu mitigés. Parfois, les mesures de contraction budgétaire sont associées à une baisse de la croissance des revenus des moins bien nantis et à une hausse des inégalités, parfois l'impact de ces mesures est non significatif. Par ailleurs, aucune des mesures n’affecte de manière significative la croissance du PIB. Comme implications de politique économique, les pays avec une certaine marge de manœuvre budgétaire pourraient entamer ou continuer à mettre en œuvre des programmes de "filets de sauvetage"--par exemple les programmes de transfert monétaire conditionnel--permettant aux segments vulnérables de la population de faire face à des chocs négatifs et aussi d'améliorer leur conditions de vie. Avec un potentiel de stimuler l'emploi peu qualifié, une relance budgétaire sage par les dépenses publique courantes pourrait également jouer un rôle important pour la réduction des inégalités. Aussi, pour éviter que les dépenses en capital freinent la croissance économique, les projets d'investissements publics efficients devraient être prioritaires dans le processus d'élaboration des politiques. Ce qui passe par la mise en œuvre des projets d'investissement avec une productivité plus élevée capable de générer la croissance économique nécessaire pour réduire les inégalités. / In the wake of the 2008-09 Global Recession, several issues have been raised in the economic literature about the short and long-run effects of fiscal policy on economic activity with respect to its signs, its size and its duration. These have important implications to better understand the transmission channels and the effectiveness of fiscal policies, along with the monetary policy being pursued, as well as for their economic fallouts. This dissertation is part of this renewed strand of literature to assess how changes in fiscal policy affect economic activity. It therefore relies on three essays: the macroeconomic effects of government spending and tax revenue shocks, the economic outcomes of the interaction between fiscal and monetary policies and the nexus between fiscal policy and income distribution. The first chapter examines the effects of fiscal policy shocks (government spending and tax revenue shocks) on the Canadian economy, building on the sign-restrictions-VAR approach developed by Mountford and Uhlig [2009]. In response to the Global Recession, fiscal authorities in advanced economies including Canada typically implemented a two-phase approach to fiscal policy. First, they introduced unprecedented stimulus packages to revive their economies. For instance, stimulus measures in Canada, introduced through Canada's Economic Action Plan, were projected at 3.2 percent of GDP in the 2009 federal budget while the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was estimated at 7 percent of GDP. Following the stimulus, they shifted gears, adopting adjustment plans to reduce public debt and ensure long-term fiscal sustainability. Against this backdrop, examining the size of fiscal multiplier is important to informing the effectiveness of such policy measures in reviving or not economic activity. I find that tax-cut multipliers vary between 0.2 and 0.5, while spending multipliers range between 0.2 and 1.1. Spending multipliers tend to be larger than tax-cut multipliers over the last two decades. For policy implications, these results tend to suggest that fiscal consolidations through large spending cuts could be more harmful to the economy than tax-based fiscal adjustments. The second chapter, co-written with Constant Lonkeng Ngouana, provides estimates of the US government spending multiplier over the monetary policy cycle. Government spending shocks are identified as forecast errors of the growth rate of government spending from the Survey of Professional Forecasters (SPF) and from the Greenbook record, further stripped from their predictable components. The state of monetary policy is inferred from the deviation of the Fed funds rate from the target rate, using a smooth transition function. Applying the local projections method to quarterly US data over the period 1965-2012, results show that the federal government spending multiplier is substantially higher under accommodative than non-accommodative monetary policy. The estimations also suggest that federal government spending may crowd-in or crowd-out private consumption, depending on the extent of monetary policy accommodation. The latter result reconciles---in a unified framework---apparently contradictory findings in the literature. These findings have important policy implications. They broadly suggest that fiscal policy is more effective when needed the most (e.g., at times of slack), if supported by monetary policy. They also have implications for the normalization of monetary conditions in advanced economies: the exit from UMP would lead to much lower federal government spending multipliers than otherwise, even if some amount of slack was to remain in the economy. This further highlights the need for a careful calibration of the timing of exit from unconventional monetary policy. The third chapter examines the impact of fiscal expansion and fiscal contraction measures on income distribution in a panel of 18 Latin American countries over the period 1990-2010, with a focus on the bottom 40 percent. It therefore explores how these fiscal measures and their composition have affected the income growth of the bottom 40 percent, their income share growth and economic growth. Fiscal expansions and fiscal consolidations are identified by periods for which there is a significant change in the cyclically-adjusted primary deficit as share of GDP. I find that on average, expenditures-based fiscal expansion are more likely to increase the income of the bottom 40 percent than revenues-based fiscal expansion. This result is mainly driven by government current consumption, transfers and subsidies. In addition, these fiscal expansion measures help to reduce income inequality by improving the income share of the bottom segments of the population while reducing the top income share. However, fiscal expansion could either have no effect on economic growth or prevent the latter through capital expenditures increases. Results for fiscal consolidation are somewhat mixed. Sometime, fiscal consolidation is associated with a decline of the income growth of the less well-off and rising inequality, sometime the impact is non-significant. None of the fiscal contraction measures affects significantly GDP growth. These findings have important policy implications. Countries with some fiscal space could initiate or continue to implement safety nets program--like conditional cash transfer programs--necessary to prevent the vulnerable segment of the population to adverse shocks and to improve their living standards. With a potential of stimulating low-skill employment, a wise fiscal stimulus through government current consumption increases could also play a significant role to reduce income inequality. Also, to avoid capital expenditures that hinder economic growth, efficient public investment projects should be prioritized in the policy making process. This consists of implementing investment projects with higher productivity that can enhance economic growth necessary to reduce inequality.

Many people have already questioned whether Greece would default: investors, economists, politicians and general public. The Greek debt crisis has also caused a great turmoil in the EU causing fears of its spreading to other countries with poor fiscal situation in Eurozone through bond markets. Finally the rescue package was prepared for Greece consisting of EUR 110 billion loan facility from both Eurozone and IMF. We study the Greek fiscal crisis in the thesis. We try to find its real causes in the historical chapter and we also show the methodology which can be used to assess the credit risk of Greek government using bond market information and CDS contracts information. In the empirical part we study the evolution of the probability of default of Greek government during the debt crisis using parsimonious model based on the bond market information.

O objetivo desse trabalho é analisar a influência que fundamentos internos e fatores externos exercem sobre a taxa de juros nominal dos títulos soberanos de longo prazo nos países emergentes. A base de dados engloba 13 países ao longo de 33 trimestres entre 2006 e 2014. A metodologia utilizada aborda as técnicas econométricas mais recentes para tratar dados macroeconômicos. O modelo estimado é o Pooled Mean Group desenvolvido por Pesaran, Shin e Smith (1999). O modelo consegue separar as variáveis que afetam o nível de equilíbrio da taxa de juros das que exercem efeito apenas no curto prazo. Na melhor especificação apresentada, os resultados indicam que as variáveis que causam flutuações de curto prazo na taxa de juros dos países emergentes são a taxa de juros livre de risco (+0,3), a taxa de curto prazo (+0,4) e o déficit do governo americano (+0,1). Já as variáveis que afetam o nível de equilíbrio são a taxa de juros livre de risco (+0,5), a aversão ao risco dos investidores (+0,1), o saldo em conta corrente (-0,3), a inflação (+0,1), a abertura econômica (-0,04) e a dívida bruta (efeito positivo não linear). Por fim, ao analisar exclusivamente o caso brasileiro, nosso modelo indica que se o país tivesse mantido os fundamentos internos em linha com a média dos outros emergentes desde o final de 2006, o Brasil iria chegar ao final de 2014 com uma taxa de juros nominal de longo prazo de 6,1%, 6 p.p. abaixo do valor efetivamente observado que foi de 12,1%. / The aim of this study is to analyze the influence that internal fundamentals and external factors have on long-term sovereign bond yields in emerging markets. The database covers 13 countries over 33 quarters between 2006 and 2014. The methodology addresses the latest techniques to deal with macro panels, such as panel unit root and panel cointegration tests. The estimated model is the Pooled Mean Group developed by Pesaran, Shin e Smith (1999). This model can separate the variables that affect the interest rate equilibrium from the ones that only have an effect in the short-run. In the best specification presented, the results indicates that in the short-run the variables that affects the interest rates in emerging markets are the risk free interest rate (+0.3), the short term interest rate (+0.4) and the American government deficit (+0.1). The variables that affects the equilibrium level are the risk free interest rate (+0.5), risk aversion (+0.1), current account balance (-0.3), inflation (+0.1), trade openness (-0.04) and gross debt (non-linear positive effect). Finally, by examining only the Brazilian case, our model indicates that if the country had maintained the internal fundamentals in line with the average of other emerging markets since the end of 2006, Brazil would reach the end of 2014 with a long-term interest rate of 6.1%, 6 p.p. below the actual value of 12.1%.

Après dix ans de monnaie commune, les disparités régionales persistent dans la zone euro et l’activité économique a du mal à se dynamiser. Le dysfonctionnement du système de politique économique figure parmi les explications possibles de ces évolutions. Cette thèse reconsidère la conduite des politiques macroéconomiques dans une Union hétérogène, avec transmission asymétrique des chocs. Trois essais de modélisation sont développés dans ce but. Le premier étudie la politique monétaire dans un modèle à la Barro-Gordon, à l’aide d’un jeu défini entre la banque centrale et les différents agents de l’Union. Le second introduit l’interaction entre politique monétaire et budgétaire dans l’Union, afin d’assurer un environnement stable, favorable à l’activité économique. Il se situe dans un cadre néo-keynésien, modifié pour inclure certains aspects des pratiques monétaires et budgétaires de la zone euro. Enfin, un troisième essai analyse le rôle de ces politiques dans la stabilisation des chocs conjoncturels, à l’aide d’un modèle d’équilibre général dynamique stochastique (DSGE) avec asymétries financières. Les enseignements vont dans une direction commune. Une politique monétaire orientée vers la réduction des divergences nationales serait bénéfique pour l’Union, uniquement si la banque centrale est hostile simultanément aux divergences d’inflation et de revenu. L’intérêt de la banque centrale pour les seules divergences d’inflation peut être contreproductif. Les politiques nationales restent les principaux outils pour réduire les disparités. Leur conduite doit se faire dans un cadre coordonné, qui tient compte des asymétries structurelles dans l’Union. Ce serait compatible avec la conduite autonome des politiques budgétaires, suivant une stratégie commune pour la zone. L’annonce publique des règles budgétaires nationales permettrait d’améliorer la transparence des politiques et d’accroître leur efficacité. / After ten years of using the common currency, national divergences in the euro area are persistent and the economic growth is slower than expected. This manuscript is focusing on the use of inappropriate economic policies as potential reason for such empirical facts. It tries to reconsider the monetary and fiscal policy definition in a heterogeneous monetary union, with asymmetric monetary transmission. Three different models were developed in this work. The first one studies the monetary policy in a Barro-Gordon traditional framework, by using a game among the central bank and the different agents of the Union. The second model appeals to the interaction between monetary and fiscal policies, in order to guarantee stable economic conditions. It proposes a dynamic analysis of an asymmetric monetary Union, in a neo-keynesian framework, modified to take into account an interest rate rule for the monetary policy. The last model analyzes the importance of the previously mentioned policies for stabilizing shocks, using a DSGE model. The overall conclusions suggest that a monetary policy oriented to the reduction of the national divergences would be beneficial for the Union only if the central bank is simultaneously adverse to inflation and output divergences. If the central bank is only concerned by inflation divergences, and disregards the output differentials, the monetary policy could be counterproductive. The national policies are the main means of reducing asymmetries. They should be rigorously conducted, and must take into account the structural asymmetries in the Union. The public announcement of the national fiscal rules could be a solution for increasing the policies’ transparency and for improving their efficiency.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:48:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alexandre Guedes Viana.pdf: 572988 bytes, checksum: 4fcd32f1b8649a63030e09f26c448edf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-05-04 / During the 1930s and 1940s, the Swedish State introduced a set of measures that had as goals reducing the unemployment, raising the economic growth and increasing the welfare. However, this set of measures was blocked by challenges that appeared after the World War II, specially the conflict between inflation and unemployment. To solve this conflict, the economists Gösta Rehn and Rudolf Meidner presented in 1951 an economic model that has been recognized as the synthesis of the Swedish model. This model reveals as an alternative for the economic policy management, therefore it has as objective to reach the full employment and the price stability simultaneously, using labour market policies and a restrictive fiscal policy. These objectives had been reached from the middle of 1950s until the beginning of 1990s, period when Sweden faced a hard economic crisis. One of the crisis consequences was the sharply unemployment rising rates, which raised questions about the validity of the model. Thus, the aim of this paper is to introduce the Swedish model and the full employment issue, analyzing the unemployment rising rates after the 1990s crisis. To reach this aim the theoretical aspects of the Swedish model are discussed, as well as the macroeconomic policies adopted by Sweden after the World War II and the reasons for the unemployment rising rates. This is a worthy issue because the Swedish model was efficient in maintain the full employment for almost four decades / Durante as décadas de 1930 e 1940, o Estado sueco introduziu uma série de medidas que tinham como objetivo reduzir o desemprego, elevar o crescimento econômico e aumentar o bem-estar social. Porém, essas medidas esbarraram em desafios que surgiram após a II Guerra Mundial, destacando o dilema entre inflação e desemprego. Para resolver esse dilema, os economistas Gösta Rehn e Rudolf Meidner apresentaram em 1951 um modelo econômico que passou a ser reconhecido como a síntese do modelo sueco. Esse modelo mostra-se como uma alternativa singular para a gestão da política econômica, pois possui como objetivos atingir o pleno emprego e a estabilidade de preços simultaneamente, utilizando políticas de mercado de trabalho e uma política fiscal restritiva. Esses objetivos foram atingidos de meados da década de 1950 até o início da década de 1990, momento em que a Suécia enfrentou uma forte crise econômica. Um dos reflexos dessa crise foi a expressiva elevação dos índices de desemprego, o que levantou questionamentos sobre a validade do modelo. Desse modo, o propósito deste trabalho é apresentar o modelo sueco e a questão do pleno emprego, além de analisar a elevação do desemprego após a crise da década de 1990. Para atingir este objetivo são discutidos os aspectos teóricos do modelo sueco, as políticas macroeconômicas adotadas pela Suécia após a II Guerra Mundial e as hipóteses para a elevação das taxas de desemprego. Analisar essas hipóteses se mostra relevante, uma vez que o modelo sueco foi eficaz em manter o pleno emprego por praticamente quatro décadas