Tableau d'honneur de la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales, 2011-2012 / Dans un contexte où les prix des aliments sur le marché international tendent à la hausse et, à court terme, sont soumis à des fluctuations importantes, il est fondamental de mettre en place des politiques visant à assurer une nutrition suffisante et adéquate des groupes les plus vulnérables. La plupart des études sur le sujet se concentrent sur les effets « monétaires » de la crise et, en même temps, elles font l'hypothèse que les membres de chaque ménage partagent équitablement les conséquences néfastes des chocs sur les prix. Je propose une approche alternative, basée sur un système de demande de type AIDS {Almost Ideal Demand System) au Bangladesh, visant à mesurer les conséquences de la crise alimentaire sur la santé nutritionnelle des individus. De plus, les données disponibles me permettent de prendre en compte la dimension de l'allocation intrafamiliale des ressources. Mon approche est ainsi centrée sur les besoins des individus, plutôt que sur les besoins agrégés des ménages.

Ce mémoire cherche à élucider de combien variera les parts de marché des sources d'énergie consommées par l'industrie des pâtes et papier suite à l'implantation du programme proposé dans le cadre réglementaire fédéral sur les émissions atmosphériques rendu public en avril 2007. Pour ce faire, nous utilisons un modèle économétrique basé sur la fonction Translog. L'implantation de la réglementation fédérale est simulée en considérant différents scénarios de prix pour une tonne d'émissions de gaz à effet de serre (GES). À partir de notre modèle estimé, nous calculons les élasticité-prix de la demande des sources d'énergie considérées et évaluons de combien variera la consommation et les émissions de ces sources d'énergie suite à l'imposition d'un prix sur la tonne de GES

Cette thèse se propose de spécifier le contenu de la notion d'équilibre. Pour ce faire, on étudie divers modèles qui ont pour point commun de mobiliser une analyse en terme d'équilibre mais qui donnent un sens différent a cette notion. Il ressort de cet examen que la théorie de l'équilibre général concurrentiel et son corolaire, l'équilibre en tant que point fixe d'un processus, forment le cadre le plus adapte ainsi que le plus cohérent pour appréhender la notion d'équilibre. Toutefois, même au sein de cette dernière théorie, la référence a la notion d'équilibre induit une série de difficultés sur le plan de l'unicité, la stabilité ou encore dans la prise en compte d'une dimension temporelle. On observe alors que ces difficultés s'estompent si l'on considère l'équilibre en tant que concept de base d'un programme de planification. Conformément a ce constat, on développe une procédure de planification étatique et intra-firme qui s'appuie sur la théorie du contrôle optimal et sur celle de la séparabilité du domaine. L'idée sous-jacente étant de prouver que l'on peut établir d'élégants et puissants résultats, afin de relancer la recherche en matière d'élaboration de techniques de planification.

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

Cette thèse est composée de trois articles qui traitent de problématiques en relation avec l'intégration financière en finance internationale. Le premier chapitre intitulé Private capital flows and productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa : Does the capital allocation puzzle matter?, examine la problématique des flux de capitaux et leur contribution à la productivité et à la croissance économique. Nous investiguons si l'allocation des flux de capitaux privés étrangers à travers des secteurs économiques hétérogènes permet d'expliquer l'énigme d'allocation des flux de capitaux en finance internationale. Nous trouvons que les effets des flux des capitaux privés étrangers sur la productivité et la croissance économique dépendent du secteur économique destinataire de ces flux et que l'énigme d'allocation des flux de capitaux en finance internationale est une énigme sectorielle des flux de capitaux. Le deuxième chapitre intitulé The direct and indirect transmission of global credit market shocks to credit cycles in developing economies, examine la transmission des chocs financiers entre pays à travers l'activité des banques transfrontalières. Nous montrons que les chocs de crédits des marchés financiers développés sont transmis directement aux cycles de crédit des pays en développement par l'activité des banques transfrontalières. Nous trouvons également que le cycle des prix des matières premières constitue le principal canal de transmission des chocs de crédit des marchés financiers développés aux cycles de crédit des pays en développement à travers les flux de capitaux bancaires transfrontaliers. Nous trouvons enfin que la régulation macroprudentielle peut aider à réduire l'instabilité financière qui provient de ces f lux de capitaux bancaires transfrontaliers. Le troisième chapitre intitulé Essay on optimal credit development, examine la possible existence d'une région optimale d'allocation de crédit au regard de la littérature sur le développement financier et la stabilité financière. Nos résultats montrent qu'il existe quatre régimes de développement de crédit. Nos résultats indiquent également qu'il existe une région optimale de développement de crédit où tout développement de crédit aide à promouvoir la croissance économique. Nous examinons également le rôle des flux de capitaux étrangers dans ce cadre. Nous trouvons que les effets des flux de capitaux dépendent du type de flux de capitaux, du régime de développement de crédit et du niveau de développement économique. / This thesis consists of three articles that address issues related to international financial integration in international finance. The first chapter, Private capital flows and productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa: Does the capital allocation puzzle matter?, examines the issue of foreign capital flows and their contribution to productivity and economic growth. We investigate whether the allocation of foreign private capital flows across different heterogeneous economic sectors helps explain the capital allocation puzzle in international finance. We find that the effects of foreign private capital flows on productivity and economic growth depend on the economic sector to which the flows are directed and that the capital flow allocation puzzle in international finance is a sectoral capital allocation puzzle. The second chapter, The direct and indirect transmission of global credit market shocks to credit cycles in developing economies, examines the transmission of financial shocks between countries through the activity of cross-border banks. We show that credit shocks from developed financial markets are transmitted directly to developing countries' credit cycles through cross-border banking activity. We find that the commodity price cycle is the main channel of transmission of credit shocks from developed financial markets to developing countries' credit cycles through cross-border banking capital flows. Finally, we find that macroprudential regulation helps reduce the financial instability that stems from cross-border banking capital f lows. The third chapter, Essay on optimal credit development, examines the possible existence of an optimal credit development region regarding the financial development and financial stability literatures. We show that there are four regimes of credit development. We show that there is an optimal credit development region where any credit development helps promote economic growth. We also examine the role of foreign capital flows in this framework. We find that the effects of foreign capital flows depend on the type of foreign capital flows, the credit development regime, and the level of economic development.

Une littérature dynamique en économie du crime a, au cours des dernières années, proposé des analyses qui permettent de mieux comprendre l'impact des programmes de réinsertion sur la récidive observée des criminels. Cependant, l'impact, et l'hétérogénéité de l'impact de tels programmes sur le potentiel criminogène latent des individus, en particulier chez les récidivistes, demeure inconnu. Bien qu'elle soit importante d'un point de vue des politiques publiques et de gestion des ressources en milieu carcéral, il est difficile de répondre à cette question car le potentiel criminogène des individus n'est généralement pas observable. En utilisant des données du ministère de la Sécurité publique du Québec, ce mémoire propose une réponse à ce problème. En mesurant le potentiel criminogène de récidivistes à l'aide du LS/CMI, un outil actuariel évaluant les risques de récidive et les besoins des individus, il estime comment ce dernier peut être influencé par la participation à des programmes de réinsertion sociales lors d'une sentence initiale. Ce mémoire évalue également l'hétérogénéité de ces impacts en fonction du milieu socioéconomique dans lequel se retrouve le détenu à sa sortie du milieu carcéral. Un modèle à variables instrumentales pour contrecarrer l'endogénéité de la participation volontaire des individus aux différents programmes de réinsertion sociale est utilisé. Pour ce faire, la participation à un programme est instrumentée par la propension de participation des autres détenus évalués par l'évaluateur ayant évalué l'individu au LS/CMI lors de sa première incarcération. Des effets non-statistiquement significatifs de la participation sur le potentiel d'amélioration des récidivistes masculins sont estimés. L'estimation d'effets positifs de plus grande magnitude à l'aide de la méthode des variables instrumentales comparativement à un modèle linéaire en probabilité est observée. Cela laisse croire que les individus avec un plus grand potentiel d'amélioration ne sont pas les individus qui ont davantage tendance à participer aux programmes. Un impact positif des programmes sur l'évolution du potentiel criminogène pourrait être observé pour la population criminelle n'étant pas réévaluée par le LS/CMI, puisqu'elle ne récidive pas pour une peine de plus de 6 mois. Du point de vue de gains de société, une amélioration du potentiel criminogène s'exprime par des présences plus courtes en détention et d'actes criminels moins graves résultant en des économies d'investissement à long terme. / A dynamic literature in the economics of crime has, in recent years, offered analyses that allow us to better understand the impact of reintegration programs on the observed recidivism of criminals. However, the impact and the heterogenity of the impact of such programs on the latent criminogenic tendency of individuals, particularly among repeat offenders, remains unknown. Although it is important from the point of view of public policies and management of resources in prisons, it is difficult to answer this question because the criminogenic tendency of individuals is generally not observable. Using data from the Quebec Ministry of Public Security, this thesis proposes an answer to this problem. Measuring the criminogenic tendency of repeat offenders using LS/CMI, an actuarial tool that assesses the risks of recidivism and the needs of individuals, it estimates how the latter can be influenced by participation in social reintegration programs during a previous sentence. This thesis also assesses the heterogeneity of these impacts depending on the socioeconomic environment in which the inmate finds himself when he leaves prison. I use an instrumental variable stratgy to address the endogeneity of the offenders' participation in different social reintegration programs. More specifically, I instrument the participation in a program by the estimated propensity of the evaluator, randomly assigned to an offender on his first incarceration, to incentivize inmates to register for such programs. The estimated impacts, positive and not statiscally significant, are larger in magnitude with an IV method than with a non-instrumented linear probability model, suggesting that the inmates who have the most to gain from reinsertion programs are not systematically the ones who sign up for them. This finding suggests that the programs might have an even larger positive impact on the criminogenic tendencies of the population of individual for whom such an evolution is not observed given that they never receive a second LS/CMI evaluation. From the point of view of societal gains, an improvement in the criminogenic potential translates into a shorter presence in detention and less serious criminal acts resulting in long-term savings of investment.

Ce mémoire consiste en une analyse du processus d'assimilation de la cohorte d immigrants arrivés au Canada entre octobre 2000 et septembre 2001 et de l'impact des réseaux sociaux sur leur processus d'assimilation. Les données utilisées proviennent de l'enquête longitudinale auprès des immigrants du Canada (ELIC) réalisée conjointement par Statistique Canada et Citoyenneté et Immigration Canada. Compte tenu des dissimilitudes majeures des fonctions d'offre de travail entre les hommes et les femmes, l'analyse est limitée aux immigrants masculins. Un modèle de type panel non balancé, estimé par la méthode à effets fixes est utilisé pour l'analyse afin de contrôler pour l'hétérogénéité individuelle non observée. Les résultats concernant les réseaux sociaux constituent la contribution principale de ce mémoire. Bien que la littérature suggère communément que la présence de réseaux sociaux augmente les probabilités d'emploi de l'immigrant, notre analyse ne montre aucun impact significatif lié à la présence des réseaux sociaux sur les gains horaires de l'immigrant. Les résultats montrent même que la présence de réseaux sociaux entraîne un retard de croissance des gains horaires substant iels, comparativement aux irnmigrants ne disposant pas de réseaux. Un retard de plus de 15% dès les 6 premières années passées au Canada

L'objet de ce mémoire est d'étudier à l'aide d'une expérience de laboratoire l'effet de deux réformes électorales sur la modération des politiques et la structure de parti. Les deux réformes considérées sont le remplacement du vote de pluralité (le système actuellement en place au Québec et au Canada) par, respectivement, le vote alternatif et la règle de Borda. Le vote alternatif et la règle de Borda ont le même bulletin de vote mais une règle d'allocation différente. La règle d'allocation spécifie comment les votes des électeurs sont agrégés pour déterminer le gagnant de l'élection. Le vote alternatif utilise la règle majoritaire, tandis que la règle de Borda utilise la règle de pluralité. Mes résultats suggèrent que la règle de pluralité conduit à une plus grande modération des politiques (et un niveau de bien-être social plus élevé) que la règle majoritaire. Cette différence s'explique par un effet mécanique de la règle d'allocation et non par une différence dans le comportement de vote des électeurs. Je n'observe pas de différence significative dans la structure de parti.

Les dernières décennies ont vu l’endettement des ménages, et plus précisément le ratio dette/revenu disponible, augmenter de façon significative dans la majorité des pays de l’Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Économiques (OCDE). Ce mémoire cherche à expliquer ce phénomène à l’aide d’une analyse économétrique se basant sur des données de onze pays de l’OCDE, de 1995 à 2010. Parmi les variables explicatives, les régressions obtiennent des effets négatifs sur l’endettement pour les taux d’intérêts réels de long terme et l’inflation, avec des retards d’une période, et positifs pour les prix réels de l’immobilier. Les coefficients de corrélation et degrés de significativité des régressions de panel sont toutefois faibles, ce qui laisse croire que d’autres facteurs plus difficiles à capter empiriquement ont pu jouer un rôle. Les changements sociologiques, la conjoncture économique favorisant l’appétit pour le risque et les différentes dérégulations financières qui ont permis un accès sans précédents au crédit en sont des exemples.

Le prix payé par les transformateurs canadiens d'oeufs a été longtemps basé sur un indice de prix américain (Urner-Barry) qui est supposé traduire la réalité du marché américain des oeufs. L'utilisation cet indice de prix comme référence avait pour objectif de garantir la compétitivité des entreprises canadiennes de la transformation des oeufs. L'écart, entre l'indice de prix américain et les coûts de production canadiens, est alors compensé par un prélevé indirectement payé par les consommateurs. L'enjeu financier lié ce mode de mise en marché est crucial pour essentiellement deux raisons. Premièrement, le secteur de la transformation a progressivement gagné en importance représentant actuellement près de 30% de la consommation d'oeufs. Deuxièmement, contrairement aux États-Unis, le mode de production des oeufs destinés à la transformation n'est pas différent de celui des oeufs vendus en épicerie ce qui a tendance à maintenir sinon à accentuer l'importance de la compensation payée par les consommateurs. L'objectif de cette étude est, d'abord, d'évaluer la représentativité de l'indice Urner-Barry sur le marché américain lorsque comparé à d'autres mécanismes de découverte des prix. Ensuite, il s'agit d'établir les implications de l'utilisation de cet indice par les producteurs d'oeufs du Canada. Nos résultats montrent que l'indice de prix utilisé est représentatif même s'il existe une relation de complémentarité entre les différents mécanismes de prix aux États-Unis. Toutefois, afin d'assurer la croissance continue du secteur des oeufs de consommation et étant donné les changements de la demande d'oeufs, il importe de réorganiser la mise en marché des oeufs. / Canadian producer’s policy towards processors regarding pricing is based on the Urner-Barry (UB) price, which is supposed to reflect market conditions in the U.S. egg sector. The objective of this policy was to ensure the competitiveness of Canadian egg processing industry. The price gap between domestic and UB price was and still is indirectly paid by consumers through a producer levy that enters the cost of production calculation. Since this agreement, the egg industry has been growing faster than expected and a consumption pattern has affected demand structure while Canadian pricing system remains unchanged. The pricing of eggs for processing has become more of an issue for two main reasons. Firstly, the HRI network has gradually gained importance currently they account for nearly 30% of national egg consumption. Secondly, At a U.S. level, production has experienced structural changes, resulting in a greater concentration, vertical integration and specialization. This tends to be maintained otherwise increase the magnitude of the compensation paid by consumers. The objective of this study is to assess the representativeness of the Urner-Barry price based on the methodology developed by Maynard and to apply it to breaking eggs for the period 2005-2010. This led us to verify possible complementarities between UB and ECI and finally, to discuss options that the Canadian egg value chain could consider in breaking eggs price. Results show that the price index used is representative even if there is a complementary relationship between the different pricing mechanisms in the United States. However, to maintain the growth of the process egg industry, we should take into account consumer demand and the marketing of eggs should still be based on US reference price.