Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo geral descrever o tipo de trabalho oferecido por duas Cooperativas de Trabalho Associado à luz do conceito de Trabalho Decente postulado pela Organização Internacional do Trabalho. Com este intuito, se buscou descrever o conceito de flexibilidade na produção, as modalidades que esta apresenta, bem como a precarização das condições no trabalho que gera. Posteriormente, se apresenta o cooperativismo, e em especial as Cooperativas de Trabalho Associado CTAs- como alternativa para contrabalancear a flexibilização do mercado de trabalho. Na seqüência, se expõe o conceito de Trabalho Decente como ferramenta que permite identificar a existência de precariedade no trabalho, e seu instrumento para a análise do nível micro. Os dados desta pesquisa foram coletados e sistematizados sob a ótica do Trabalho Decente, cuja diretriz se fundamenta nos sete tipos de segurança indicados pela Organização Internacional do Trabalho. A investigação teve como eixo principal o estudo de caso de duas cooperativas de Trabalho Associado nas cidades de Medellín Colômbia- e São Paulo Brasil. Foi uma investigação de tipo descritiva, com dados coletados por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica e aplicação da Pesquisa de Segurança das Pessoas ESP. Com relação ao tipo de trabalho exercido em ambas as cooperativas analisadas, dada a heterogeneidade dos resultados, conclui-se pela impossibilidade de se afirmar de maneira categórica de tratar-se de Trabalho Decente ou Precário, sendo necessária uma conclusão específica para cada um dos tipos de segurança. / The general objective of this research is to describe the sort of work offered by two associated work cooperatives under the concept of Decent Labor proposed by the International Labor Organization. With this intention, we want to describe de concept of flexibility in production and the existing modalities to the cooperativism, especially the Associated Labor Cooperatives -ALC- as an alternative for balancing the flexibilization of the labor market. Therefore, the concept of labor is presented as a tool that helps us to identify the existence of precariousness in the work and as an instrument for analysis at the micro level. The collected data was processed and presented under the perspective of decent labor, whose guideline is based on the seven types of safety identified by the International Labor Organization. The core of this research was the study case of two Associated Work Cooperatives in the cities of Medellin, Colombia, and Sao Paulo, Brazil. It was a descriptive investigation with data collected through Bibliographic research and application of the People\'s Security Survey -PSS-. Regarding type of labor in both of the analyzed cooperatives, and given the heterogeneity of the results, we conclude the impossibility to affirm categorically whether it is a decent or precarious work, since is necessary a specific conclusion for each kind of security.

This Ph.D. project thesis is a collection of three autonomous works tied by a common focus, that is to inquire the role public sector – within the peculiar Italian context – may exert to improve firms’ performance, thus supporting the aggregate growth in country’s economy. The first two works relates to public procurement, the main tool within the demand-side policy measures, which is object of a revitalized interest in both policymakers and scholars. In the first work I investigate whether those Italian firms engaging in public procurement report a larger propensity to innovate with respect to their counterparts that exclusively target private customers, paying mainly at- tention on how any effect varies with the amount of public procurement a firm is engaged into. In the second work, which represents an extension of the previous one, the scope is enlarged in order to investigate whether municipal procurement, that is that promoted by Municipalities, affects firms (in terms of higher productivity) localized within the same municipal borders. This investigation grounds on a comprehensive dataset that merges the rich panel information about Italian firms – provided by RIL surveys – with more than a million of official administrative data on all the public tenders awarded in Italy between 2010-2018, provided by the Italian anti-corruption agency (ANAC). In the last work, the attention is shifted towards the way with whom firms manage their labor force to enhance their innovative performance. This work, which grounds its premises on the numerous reforms of labor market that followed one another in the last two decades, represents a first attempt with respect to the Italian context to look at three dimensions of numerical flexibility at the same time and to explore some potential channels capable to mediate the relation between numerical flexibility and innovation.

Le premier chapitre dresse un état des lieux de la littérature relative l’activité partielle et introduit les trois questions de recherche développées dans cette thèse, à savoir la diffusion locale du recours à l’activité partielle en France au cours de la période2003-2014, l’effet de l’activité partielle sur l’emploi en France au cours de la Grande Récession 2008-2009 et l’effet des réformes de 2012-2013 de l’activité partielle et du recours récurrent à ce dispositif sur la production agrégée en France. Dans le second chapitre, nous mettons en lumière la diffusion locale du recours à l’activité partielle en France sur la période 2003-2014. Pour ce faire, nous évaluons l’effet de la proximité géographique d’établissements ayant déjà recouru à l’activité partielle par le passé sur le recours à l’activité partielle d’un établissement pour la première fois sur la période 2003-2014. En effet, nous soutenons que l’information dont disposent les établissements au sujet du dispositif et de sa procédure, notamment par le biais des établissements voisins, constitue un déterminant essentiel du recours à l’activité partielle. Nos faits stylisés révèlent que le recours à l’activité partielle est concentré au niveau géographique et que cette concentration revêt un caractère dynamique. Nous utilisons comme mesure de la diffusion locale de l’information relative à l’activité partielle un indice de concentration spatiale (fondé sur les distances inter-établissements) et prenons en compte les autres caractéristiques des établissements afin de distinguer l’effet de cette transmission d’information d’autres déterminants du recours au dispositif et ainsi mettre en évidence son impact sur le recours à l’activité partielle d’un établissement pour la première fois. Nos résultats montrent l’importance de la diffusion locale de l’information relative à l’activité partielle, que cette diffusion décroît dans les premiers kilomètres et que cette information transite à la fois au sein d’un secteur donné et entre secteurs.Dans le troisième chapitre, nous évaluons l’effet de l’activité partielle sur l’emploi en France an cours de la Grande Récession 2008-2009. Nous développons un modèle théorique suivant lequel l’effet de l’activité partielle varie selon la situation financière des entreprises. Pour des entreprises faisant face à une forte diminution de leur chiffre d’affaires, l’activité partielle permet de sauvegarder l’emploi, tandis que pour des entreprises dont la réduction du chiffre d’affaires est modérée, l’activité partielle entraîne une diminution des heures travaillées sans pour autant préserver l’emploi. Ces effets théoriques contrastés sont confirmés par nos résultats empiriques, qui mettent en évidence que l’activité partielle a réduit le nombre d’emplois détruits uniquement en cas de réduction importante du chiffre d’affaires mais n’a eu aucun effet significatif sur l’emploi pour les autres entreprises, qui représentent environ 40 % des utilisateurs de l’activité partielle. Ces effets d’aubaine, bien que considérables au regard du dispositif d’activité partielle, demeurent négligeables par rapport à d’autres mesures telles que les subventions salariales et à l’embauche. De plus, l’activité partielle n’a pas contribué à maintenir en vie des entreprises en difficultés structurelles. L’activité partielle a donc constitué un dispositif efficace à la sauvegarde de l’emploi en France au cours de la Grande Récession 2008-2009. / The literature review on short-time work presented in the first chapter underlines the motivation behind the three research questions developed in this dissertation, namely the local diffusion of short-time work, the impact of short-time work on employment during the great 2008-2009 recession in France, and the impact of the 2012-2013 reforms of short-time work and its recurrent use on aggregate production in France.In the second chapter, we assess the local diffusion of short-time work. We argue that the geographical proximity of establishments having already used short-time work in the past is a major information channel regarding this scheme. Relying on distance-based methods, our stylized facts highlight the spatial and dynamic concentration of short-time work use in France between 2002 and 2014. Our econometric analysis reveals that the local information about short-timework constitutes a determinant of its use, that it attenuates rapidly in the first kilometers and that this information is both transmitted within and between sectors. We interpret this significant spatial concentration of short-time use,after controlling for the determinants of short-time work at the establishment level, as an evidence of information spillovers.In the third chapter, we estimate the impact of short-time work on employment during the great 2008-2009 recession in France.The model we develop shows that the effect of short-time work varies depending on the financial situation of the firms. For firms facing a strong decline in their revenue, short-time work saves employment, whereas for firms facing a moderate decline in their revenue, short-time work entails a drop in hours worked without reducing job losses. These heterogeneous effects are confirmed by our empirical results, which demonstrate that short-time work has reduced the number of job losses for firms which faced dramatic drop in their revenue, but has had no significant impact on employment for the other firms. These windfall effects, although sizeable within the short-time workscheme, are negligible compared to other policies such as wage and hiring subsidies. Additionally, short-time work didn’t help structurally weak firms to survive. Hence, short-time work has been an efficient policy to save jobs during the great 2008-2009recession in France.In the fourth chapter, we evaluate the impact of the 2012-2013reforms of short-time work and its recurrent use on aggregate production in France. The 2012-2013 reforms have increased the generosity of short-time work and hence have suppressed the remaining cost supported by the firm. Our stylized facts highlight that short-time work is essentially used by a small number of firms in a recurrent way and this repeated use has aggravated following these reforms. The theoretical model we develop shows that such reforms of short-time work have entailed cross subsidies towards recurrent short-time work users and have reduced aggregate production compared to the social optimum.According to our model, the efficient policy should provide unemployment insurance benefits funded by experience rated employers’ contributions instead of short-time work benefits.