Cette thèse étudie le système de distribution alimentaire au Vietnam fondée sur une approche de concurrence imparfaite. Le premier chapitre analyse le comportement de marché des intermédiaires dans le système de distribution alimentaire traditionnel. Nous modélisons le comportement des intermédiaires dans tous les cas de compétition de marché afin d'identifier l'impact du pouvoir de marché sur les producteurs alimentaires en amont, et sur les consommateurs en aval du système de distribution alimentaire traditionnel.La relation compétitive entre les différents circuits de distribution alimentaire est étudiée dans le second chapitre. Nous modélisation la compétition entre les systèmes de distribution alimentaire traditionnelle et moderne. Nous examinons la condition de coexistence qui permet aux deux circuits d'être active dans chaque cas spécifique de compétition de marché.Le troisième chapitre étudie le choix de circuit optimal des agriculteurs quand les coopératives agricoles soutiennent les petits producteurs dans l'accès au système de distribution alimentaire moderne. Nous introduisons deux circuits de distribution verticalement liés par la demande. Nous étudions le flux de quantité des petits producteurs aux consommateurs au moyen d'un équilibre de Nash, et nous abordons la question de la distribution des agriculteurs par un équilibre de libre entrée.Finalement, le quatrième chapitre analyse l'effet direct de la politique sur le système de distribution alimentaire. Nous proposons le modèle théorique de la réforme agraire, et étudions son impact sur le système de distribution alimentaire. / This dissertation studies the food distribution system in Viet Nam based on an imperfect competition approach.The first chapter analyzes the market behavior of the intermediaries in the traditional food distribution system. We model the intermediary behavior in all cases of market competition to recognize the impact of their market power on the food producers in the upstream, and on the consumers in the downstream of the traditional food distribution system.The competitive relationship between different food distribution channels is studied in the second chapter. We model the competition between the traditional and the modern food distribution system to analyze how the market behaves at equilibrium. We moreover investigate the coexistence condition which allows both channels to be active in each specific case of market competition.The third chapter studies the optimal channel choice of the farmers when agricultural cooperatives support these small producers accessing the modern food distribution system. We introduce two distribution channel vertically linked by demand. We study the quantity flow from small producers to the consumers by mean of a Nash equilibrium and address the question of the distribution of the farmers by a free entry equilibrium.Eventually, the fourth chapter analyzes the policy implication directly toward the food distribution system. We propose the theoretical model of land reform and study its impact on the food distribution system.

L’Amérique Latine et les Caraïbes sont l’une des régions plus violentes du monde. Le niveau de violence est particulièrement élevé dans les plus grandes villes de cette région (UNODC, 2013). La compréhension des déterminants de la criminalité urbaine est donc un défi majeur pour ces pays. Cette thèse a pour but d’explorer le rôle de trois déterminants de la criminalité en Équateur: les inégalités économiques, la taille des villes et le role des émotions liés aux évènements sportifs tels que les matchs de football.Avant d’entreprendre cette analyse empirique, nous proposons une revue des littératures théorique et empirique sur les déterminants de la criminalité urbaine. Une conclusion importante est que les incitations économiques conduisant à des activités criminelles sont influencées par les schémas de localisation des criminels et des victimes. Partant de ce constat, la thèse propose d’entreprendre trois analyses empiriques à différentes échelles géographiques. Tout d’abord, nous explorons l'effet des inégalités de revenus sur le risque de victimisation en Équateur, en utilisant des données individuelles issues de l’enquête nationale de victimisation. Le principal résultat est que, contrairement aux prédictions, le coefficient de Gini a un effet négatif sur la probabilité d’être victime de vols. Ce résultat pourrait être lié à une ségrégation résidentielle élevée ou à un contrôle social élevé contre la criminalité. De plus, les estimations révèlent une relation croissante et concave entre le niveau de revenu des victimes et la probabilité de victimisation concernant les vols de véhicule, qui augmente avec un revenu mensuel jusqu’à 5,100 dollars, et puis diminue.Ensuite, nous testons l'existence d'une prime de criminalité urbaine (criminalité plus élevée dans les zones urbaines) en Équateur, à l’échelle des paroisses. Le principal résultat indique que la taille des villes a une influence non-monotone sur le taux d’homicide. La probabilité de constater un ou plusieurs homicides est plus élevée dans les paroisses les plus peuplées. Toutefois, le taux d’homicide diminue avec le niveau de population dans les paroisses où se produisent des homicides. Concernant les crimes contre la propriété, les résultats confirment l’influence positive de la population sur le nombre de crime par habitant. Enfin, nous estimons l’impact des matchs de football sur le nombre d'homicides et de crimes contre la propriété dans 16 cantons d’Équateur, à l’échelle intra-urbaine. L’objectif est d’étudier l’influence des matchs de football sur les profils temporels et géographiques des crimes, ainsi que l’impact des émotions (frustration et euphorie) liées aux résultats des matchs sur la criminalité. Les résultats indiquent que le nombre d'homicides augmente 0.18% avant le match, tandis que le nombre de crimes contre la propriété augmente 12% après le match, à proximité du stade. Les matchs de football entraînent également une diffusion spatiale de la criminalité dans des quartiers éloignés des stades. Les jours de matchs, les crimes contre la propriété diminuent 0.88% avant le match et les homicides diminuent 0.05% pendant le match, dans les quartiers éloignés des stades. Après le match, les homicides et les crimes contre la propriété augmentent de manière significative dans les quartiers éloignés des stades. Enfin, l'effet des émotions sur les homicides et les crimes contre la propriété n'est pas significatif au niveau agrégé, alors qu’il est significatif en ce qui concerne les homicides commis dans la capitale de l'Équateur, Quito. / Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is one of the most violent regions in the world. Importantly, higher levels of violence prevail in most urbanized LAC cities (UNODC, 2013). Understanding the determinants of urban crime is therefore a major challenge for those countries. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the role of three crime determinants in Ecuador: economic inequalities, city size, and the emotions caused by soccer events.Before conducting this empirical analysis, we first review the theoretical and empirical literature on urban crime determinants. An important conclusion is that economic incentives that lead individuals to commit crime are influenced by the location pattern of criminals and victims. Building on these considerations, we perform three empirical analyses at different geographic levels.First, we explore the effect of income inequality on victimization in Ecuador, using data at the individual level thanks to the Ecuadorian Victimization survey. The main result is that, contrary to the predictions, the Gini coefficient has a negative effect on victimization by robbery. This result could be related to a high residential segregation or a high social control against crime. In addition, we provide evidence for an increasing and concave relationship between the income level of victims and the probability of victimization by vehicle theft, which first increases with a monthly household income up to $5,100, and then falls.Second, we test the existence of an urban crime premium (higher crime in urban areas) in Ecuador, at the parish level. Our main result is that population exerts a non-linear influence on the homicide rate. The probability that a homicide happens is higher in larger parishes. However, the homicide rate decreases with population in parishes with positive homicides. By contrast, the results regarding property crimes confirm that the level of population increases the number of pecuniary crimes per inhabitant.Third, we explore the effect of soccer matches on the number of homicides and property crimes in 16 cantons of Ecuador, at the intra-city level. The aim is to test whether soccer matches alter the temporal and spatial patterns of crime, and the role of emotions (frustration and euphoria) resulting from soccer matches on crime. Results reveal that the number of homicides increases by 0.18% before the match whereas the number of property crimes increases by 12% after the match, near the stadium. Soccer matches also cause spatial spillovers of crime in locations distant from stadiums. On game days, the number of property crimes falls by 0.88% before the match and the number of homicides falls by 0.05% during the match, in these distant locations. After the game, the homicides and property crimes significantly increase in locations distant from stadiums. Finally, the effect of emotions on homicides or property crimes is not significant at the aggregate level but it is significant regarding homicides that occur in the capital of Ecuador, Quito.

Cette thèse s’intéresse aux choix de politique publique des collectivités locales, telles que les municipalités, qui font face à une forte mobilité du capital, des résidents et des travailleurs. La littérature sur la concurrence fiscale a porté une attention très limitée à cette forte mobilité des agents économiques au niveau local. La mobilité des ménages a le plus souvent été ignorée. Aucun modèle unifié ne tient compte de la mobilité du capital, des résidents et des travailleurs. Les modèles existants,en faisant l'hypothèse de résidents ou travailleurs immobiles, décrivent davantage une réalité nationale, voire régionale, mais pas locale.La question de recherche de notre thèse est : comment, au sein d'une agglomération urbaine, des gouvernements locaux concurrents, faisant face à une importante mobilité du capital, des résidents et des travailleurs, choisissent-ils leurs divers instruments de politique publique ? Elle a un intérêt théorique car elle met en lumière nos lacunes dans la connaissance des gouvernements locaux. Elle a également un intérêt empirique car les données fiscales, socio-démographiques, économiques etpolitiques au niveau municipal comptent parmi les plus accessibles.Notre thèse peut fournir de meilleures bases théoriques pour de futurs travaux théoriques et permettre d'ouvrir la voie vers de nouvelles approches dans l'étude des choix des gouvernements locaux. / This thesis is interested in public policy choices of local governments of the low-level jurisdictions, such as municipalities which face a high degree of mobility of capital, residents and workers. The tax competition literature did not pay enough attention to this strong mobility of the agents. Household mobility is most often ignored in the literature and there exists no model including capital, residents' and workers' mobility. By assuming immobility of households (either residents or workers or both), previous work depicts more a regional or national environment than a local one.This thesis addresses the following question: within metropolitan areas, how do competing local governments, facing a high mobility of capital, residents and workers, choose their various policy instruments? Theoretically, our thesis contributes to fill the gap in the literature mentioned above. It also matters from an empirical perspective. Indeed, fiscal, socio-demographic, economic and political data at the municipal level are among the most accessible ones.Our thesis can help to provide better theoretical grounds for future empirical work and pave the way for new approaches in the study of local governments' choices where agents' mobility plays a central role.

Ma thèse apporte une contribution à l'analyse économique des déterminants de la croissance de la population et de son impact sur le bien-être. Elle se concentre particulièrement sur les comportements de fécondité, déterminant majeur de la croissance démographique. Le premier chapitre de cette thèse explore les recommandations de politique économique du modèle Beckerien standard. Il est démontré que, dans ce cadre, toute politique de subvention à l'éducation doit être complétée par une politique familiale. Cette politique consiste à taxer les naissances lorsque les externalités liées à l'investissement éducatif sont fortes. Le second chapitre propose un modèle où l'apparition et le timing de la transition démographique dépendent de l'interaction entre déterminants économiques et culturels des comportements de fécondité. La transition démographique est alors le fruit d'un progrès technique asymétrique en faveur du secteur industriel et d'une transition culturelle. Le troisième chapitre propose de mesurer l'impact de l'appartenance et de la pratique religieuse sur les comportements de fécondité en France. Cet exercice est le premier du genre en France et il conclut que l'intensité de la pratique religieuse est la seule variable religieuse qui influence significativement la fécondité : plus un individu est pratiquant et plus sa fécondité est élevée. Il apparaît que la transmission des comportements de fécondité et des valeurs familiales entre générations sont également des déterminants significatifs de la fécondité en France. Les effets Beckeriens standards sont également validés.

La thèse est une réflexion théorique et méthodologique sur la méthode d'évaluation contingente ayant pour support une enquête sur la demande en assainissement conduite à Moshi (Tanzanie). La première partie est consacrée à un historique de la méthode. Il apparaît qu'après avoir été conçue pour mesurer des bénéfices et donner un indicateur de légitimité des politiques publiques elle a été utilisée, dans des pays en développement, pour évaluer des demandes et donner un indicateur de faisabilité. Une littérature autonome s'est ainsi constituée, conservant néanmoins les fondements théoriques initiaux issus de l'économie du bien-être. La deuxième partie est consacrée à explorer cette théorie, à critiquer ses fondements philosophiques utilitaristes et à proposer un nouveau cadre d'interprétation des réponses. Rejetant la possibilité de mesurer un bénéfice global, ce cadre théorique réintroduit la société et la morale dans la décision des individus et propose d'interpréter les réponses aux questions portant sur des biens non-marchands à travers le prisme du vecteur de paiement et du compromis qui est présenté à l'enquêté. Pour les biens marchands, ce cadre propose d'interpréter les réponses comme un prix, une demande du consommateur qui n'est pas prédéterminée par une substance (telle que l'utilité) contenue dans le bien mais qui est issue d'un processus de construction dépendant du contexte. La troisième partie expose, à travers l'enquête conduite à Moshi (rebaptisée mesure contingente de la demande) les enseignements méthodologiques (temps pour réfléchir, jeu d'enchère, consentement à travailler, analyse du marché locatif) et opérationnels tirées de ce nouveau cadre.

Depuis la Révolution Industrielle, les systèmes de production et de consommation de biens n’ont cessé d’évoluer au gré des innovations technologiques, organisationnelles et politiques. Mais ils ont montré une certaine permanence dans les objectifs qui sous-tendent et justifient leurs modalités d’organisation. Ces objectifs sont ceux portés par une société marchande au sein de laquelle l’échange économique constitue un moyen de créer des richesses et de répondre aux besoins de consommation. La recherche d’amélioration continue de la productivité de l’offre et la croissance des volumes et de la diversité des biens et services demandés ont contribué à façonner un système économique marchand et mondialisé, considéré comme le meilleur moyen de créer et de faire circuler les richesses. Pourtant, au cours des dernières décennies, l’atteinte des limites de ce système, tant en termes environnementaux que sociaux, a conduit les acteurs de l’échange à envisager de nouveaux moyens de satisfaire de manière efficace les besoins de consommateurs. Parmi ces moyens, l’économie de fonctionnalité vise à proposer de nouvelles modalités de création de valeur en substituant la vente de l’usage d’un bien à la vente du bien lui-même. Souvent associée à un modèle permettant de découpler la réponse aux besoins de l’utilisation de ressources matérielles, mais aussi de re-territorialiser des activités productives déconnectées de leurs espaces géographiques de consommation, cette pratique interroge quant à sa capacité à faire évoluer le paradigme classique de production et de consommation de masse. Est-elle un simple outil organisationnel permettant de limiter les impacts négatifs du système économique sans en modifier les finalités ou permet-elle au contraire d’en infléchir la trajectoire et de modifier les finalités qu’il poursuit ? Cette thèse cherche à répondre à cette question en abordant l’économie de fonctionnalité par les représentations de l’échange de qualité qu’elle engage dans l’action. Elle s’appuie sur l’économie des conventions pour caractériser les différentes qualités légitimes de l’échange par l’économie de fonctionnalité. Elle cherche à déterminer lesquelles sont porteuses de changements dans les modalités de l’échange sans en modifier les principes fondamentaux et lesquelles sont porteuses de changements dans la philosophie de l’échange économique et dans ses finalités acceptées. Moyen innovant au service d’une fin inchangée ou nouvelle fin qui contraint autant qu’elle incite les acteurs dans l’action, l’économie de fonctionnalité est susceptible de produire dans les deux situations des effets territoriaux et durables hétérogènes. Ce travail s’attache à qualifier les dynamiques de changement en jeu, de sorte à comprendre comment les représentations légitimes de l’économie de fonctionnalité se traduisent en motivations et en effets différenciés. Il crée ainsi le cadre nécessaire à la compréhension des trajectoires de convergence ou de divergence des différents types d’économies de fonctionnalité bénéficiant d’une démarche de légitimation. Il constitue de la sorte une première étape pour envisager les différentes combinaisons de représentations susceptibles de contribuer à l’émergence de systèmes économiques territorialement durables en fonction des objectifs poursuivis par les acteurs. / Since the Industrial Revolution, systems of production and consumption of goods have followed consecutive technological, organizational and political innovations phases. But they have shown a certain permanence in the objectives that underlie and justify the modalities of their organization. These goals are those conveyed by merchant society in which economic exchange is a way to create wealth and meet consumer needs. The quest for continuous improvement in supply productivity and the growth in volume and diversity of goods and services required have helped shaping a globalized trading economic system as the best way to create wealth and make it circulate. However, over the past few decades, this system has reached its limits, both in environmental and social terms, and it has led the stakeholders to consider new ways to efficiently meet the needs of consumers. Among these means, the functional economy aims at proposing new ways of creating value by substituting the sale of the use of a good to the sale of the good itself. Often associated with a model that allows to disconnect the response to the needs of the use of material resources, but also to re-territorialize productive activities that have been disjointed from their geographical areas of consumption, this practice questions as to its ability to make the classical paradigm of mass production and consumption evolve. Is it a simple organizational tool meant to limit the negative impacts of the economic system without modifying the purposes or, on the contrary, a way to change the trajectory and change the goals it pursues? This thesis seeks to answer this question by approaching the functional economy through the representations of the quality exchange that it implies in action. It relies on the economy of conventions to characterize the different legitimate qualities of the exchange. It aims at determining which ones bring changes in the modalities of exchange without impacting its fundamental principles and which bring changes in the philosophy of economic exchange and its accepted purposes. As an innovative means serving an unchanged goal or as a new end that constrains as much as it incites the actors, the functional economy is likely to produce heterogeneous territorial and sustainable effects, in both situations. This work seeks to characterize the dynamics of change at stake, so as to understand how legitimated representations of the functional economy can be translated into differentiated motives and effects. It therefore creates the necessary framework for understanding the converging or diverging trajectories of legitimate functional economies. In this way, it constitutes a first step to consider the different combinations of representations likely to contribute to the emergence of territorially sustainable economic systems according to the objectives pursued by the actors.

This dissertation consists of three chapters, which focus jointly on the effects of education policy on the functioning of labor markets.De-industrialization and technological progress have changed job markets fundamentally. The most fundamental change is that the concept of a worker as a unit of production relatively insensitive to inherent characteristics has been overthrown. Service sectors that have taken over from manufacturing as the engines of economic activity rely primarily on human capital for autonomous production. This is especially true for internationally tradable services. Their stark development was rendered possible by the informationcommunication revolution. Skills and talent, as well as their allocation to suitable tasks matter for production, now more than ever. We argue in this dissertation that the ability of education policy to facilitate optimal task allocation plays a role in maximizing aggregate production and in influencing education earnings premia, as well as employment volumes in various sectors of activity. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The advent of experimental methodologies have led to decisive progress in the study of corrupt behaviour in the last two decades. Since they can complement survey data and perception indexes with controlled experimental data, scholars and policy makers have reached a better understanding of decision-making in bribery situations and are able to design innovative anticorruption policies.In this thesis, I use experimental and empirical data to contribute to the field of the economics of corruption. The first two chapters of this PhD dissertation use experimental methodologies to study decision-making in a bribery scenario. The first chapter tests an anti-corruption strategy with a lab in the field experiment in Burundi. The second chapter studies the fairness concerns that might arise when dealing with redistribution in a bribery situation. The third chapter uses an empirical analysis to explore the controversial issue of political moonlighting, i.e. having outside activities while holding public office. It investigates "double-hat politicians", who combine mayor and parliamentary positions in Wallonia.In a first chapter, written with Jean-Benoit Falisse, we explore the effect of anti- corruption messages on corrupt behavior and public service delivery. In a novel lab-in-the-field experiment, 527 public servants from Burundi were asked to allocate rationed vouchers between anonymous citizens; some of these citizens attempted to bribe the public servants to obtain more vouchers than they were entitled to. Two groups of public servants were randomly exposed to short messages about good governance or professional identity reminders. Participants in these two groups behaved in a fairer manner than those of a third group who were not exposed to any message. The result is more robust in the case of the group exposed to the professional identity reminder. The underlying mechanisms seem to be that when a public servant reflects upon governance values and her professional identity, the moral cost increases, prompting more equal service delivery. Bribe-taking was not impacted by the messages. The experiment provides new insights into the design of anti-corruption strategies.The second chapter, written with Lena Epp, investigates the impact of a public officials’ fairness considerations towards citizens in a petty corruption situation. Other-regarding preferences, and, more particularly, fairness concerns are widely acknowledged as crucial elements of individual economic decision-making. In petty corruption contexts, public officials are to a large extent aware of differences between citizens. Here, we experimentally investigate how fairness considerations may impact on corrupt behaviour. Our novel bribery game reveals that bribes are less frequently accepted when bribers are unequal in terms of endowments. These results suggest that fairness considerations can influence corrupt behaviour.In the last chapter, I focus on political moonlighting in Wallonia. Activities outside of public office or combining specific public offices simultaneously is a topic of ongoing heated debates. An element crucial to these discussions is whether moonlighting is detrimental for politicians’ performance. In Belgium, the combination of local executive and regional legislative offices, i.e. double hat politicians, is a frequent habit for a majority of politicians. This accumulation of activities might lead to (un-)desirable outcomes in terms of political achievements. This chapter investigates the impact of holding several remunerated and honorary positions on regional MPs parliamentary activities and mayor’s municipality performance in Wallonia. I use a database of all public and private positions held by Belgian politicians in Wallonia since the disclosure of positions became compulsory for those holding at least one public position, i.e. from 2004 to 2016. For members of Parliament, wearing a double hat reduces global parliamentary activity. For mayors, it seems that holding more remunerated positions is associated with less efficient municipality management. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

My dissertation is an advocacy of the idea that if aid proved to be ineffective, it is partly because of the donor and not only the recipient as it is usually argued. The thesis contributes to the theoretical and empirical literature on aid effectiveness and explores the ability of aid to achieve its goals in the presence of both incentives and informational problems. <p>The thesis consists of three essays dealing with a particular aspect of donor policies that may impact the effectiveness of aid: i) the drivers of aid allocation among recipient countries, ii) ex-post conditionality and the role of reputation in inducing compliance with aid contracts; iii) and finally, the optimal choice of aid modalities.<p>The first chapter investigates the drivers of U.S. aid policy. <p><p>I find considerable evidence that the pattern of aid is dictated as much by political and strategic considerations, as by the economic needs and merit of the recipients. Most importantly, inertia seems to impact heavily the aid allocation process. Any of these motivations, when excessive, would lead to a time inconsistency situation where the donor is not credible in his conditionality. With such an impact on aid allocation, the question arises on the effectiveness of conditioning aid provision on political, social, or economic reforms. This is precisely the scope of chapter 2.<p><p>The second chapter investigates the conditions under which reputation can serve as commitment device in order to induce donors of development aid to enforce aid contracts and recipients to comply with such contracts. The idea is that the success of conditionality rests solely on the availability of a commitment technology that ties the hands of the donor. Reputation concerns could create the required incentives and overcome the altruism effect on the donor side.<p><p>Notwithstanding that incentive creation must not be driven by the volume of aid only, but also by the way it is channelled, i.e. aid modality. This is particularly relevant for recipients with certain characteristics. Depending on the preference alignment of the donor and the recipient, the information structure in place, the optimal aid modality can change. The characteristics of the optimal aid package are investigated in chapter 3. Optimality imposes a mix of fixed project and financial transfer to recipient countries. The transfer can be negative for countries exhibiting a high willingness or ability to redistribute to the poor. This is interpreted as a contribution to the financing of the infrastructure project. The extent of the project (large or small size) is determined by the interest of government for the poor in the recipient country.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Over the last few decades, production processes have become increasingly fragmented: they are divided into ever smaller parts considered as separate activities, which are then spread over various locations in different countries. In other words, value chains for many products are becoming global. This implies that inputs into the production process are sourced from both local and foreign suppliers. The latter mode of sourcing is commonly referred to as offshoring. Expressed as the share of imported in total intermediates, offshoring has grown relatively fast in the recent past. Moreover, its scope has been extended as it increasingly encompasses not only manufacturing but also service activities. A typical example for the former is the sourcing from abroad of parts and components for car assembly. While offshoring of manufacturing activities has been occurring since long and has been largely facilitated by trade liberalisation, the offshoring of service activities such as the provision of accounting or call centre services is a more recent phenomenon that has been fostered by the increased tradability of such services.<p>With the increasing scale and scope of offshoring, it becomes crucial to get a grasp of its drivers as well as the gains and threats associated with it. The latter are the focal point of the public and academic discussion around offshoring, in particular the potential threats for workers in developed economies. Typical questions that are being raised are whether offshoring leads to job losses in developed countries and whether it favours certain categories of workers and is to the disadvantage of others. These threats are directly linked to the motivations for engaging into offshoring. In this respect, wage costs play a prominent role. But other factors may also influence offshoring decisions, e.g. regulations, in particular those regarding the environment. Last but not least, offshoring may also entail gains for developed economies through the improvements in the efficiency of production. In this PhD thesis, several causes and consequences of offshoring are examined empirically for Belgium.<p>The first issue that is investigated is whether offshoring of materials and business services affects industry-level employment. An improved offshoring intensity measure is introduced. It is a volume measure of the share of imported intermediates in output split into materials and business services and according to the country of origin of imports, i.e. high-wage and low-wage countries. Estimations of static and dynamic industry-level labour demand equations augmented by offshoring intensities do not reveal a significant impact of either materials or business services offshoring on total employment for Belgium. This result holds for both the manufacturing sector and the service sector and it proves robust to splitting the manufacturing sector into high-technology and low-technology industries.<p>These results raise the question whether there are actually productivity gains from offshoring. Therefore, estimates of the impact of materials and business services offshoring on industry-level productivity in Belgium are presented. Two features of the analysis are new compared to the existing literature on this subject: the issue is examined separately for manufacturing and market services industries and the possibility of forward and backward spillovers from offshoring, i.e. that productivity gains from offshoring feed through to upstream and downstream industries, is investigated. Results show that materials offshoring has no effect on productivity, while business services offshoring leads to productivity gains in manufacturing. Furthermore, there is no evidence of either forward or backward spillovers from offshoring.<p>Despite the absence of an industry-level total employment effect, offshoring may alter the within-industry composition of employment. In this respect, a major concern is the worsening of the labour market position of low-skilled workers. This issue is addressed by providing evidence on the impact of offshoring on the skill structure of manufacturing employment in Belgium between 1995 and 2007. Offshoring is found to significantly lower the employment share of low-skilled workers. Its contribution to the fall in the employment share of low-skilled workers amounts to 35%. This is mainly driven by offshoring to Central and Eastern European countries. Business services offshoring also contributes significantly to the fall in the low-skilled employment share. As a complement to the existing literature, the widely used current price measure of offshoring is compared with a constant price measure that is based on a deflation with separate price indices for domestic output and imports. This reveals that the former underestimate the extent of offshoring and its impact on low-skilled employment. Finally, further results show that the impact of offshoring on low-skilled employment is significantly smaller in industries with a higher ICT capital intensity.<p>Furthermore, attention is drawn to environmental effects of offshoring by asking whether offshoring contributes to reducing air emissions from manufacturing. Indeed, since the mid-90’s, production-related air emissions in Belgian manufacturing have been reduced substantially. It can be shown that the pace of the reduction has been fastest for domestic intermediates. The issue of whether offshoring has played a role in this reduction by replacing domestic intermediates by imported intermediates is widely debated. Here, a decomposition analysis is developed to measure the contribution of offshoring – the share of imported intermediates in total intermediates – to the fall in air emissions for domestic intermediates. Based on the results from this decomposition analysis, it is possible to calculate that 17% of the fall in greenhouse gas emissions, 6% of the fall in acidifying emissions and 7% of the fall in tropospheric precursor emissions in Belgian manufacturing between 1995 and 2007 can be attributed to offshoring.<p>Finally, emission intensities are also considered as a potential determinant of offshoring. An econometric approach for testing the pollution haven effect for imported intermediate materials is developed. The approach is new with respect to the existing literature on pollution havens through its specific focus on imports of intermediates. The test is embedded in a cost function framework from which a system of cost share equations for variable input factors is derived. The set of potential determinants of the demand for imported intermediate materials includes emission intensities for three types of air pollutants. Their impact constitutes a test of the pollution haven effect. The system of cost share equations is estimated by a within ISUR using data for the Belgian manufacturing sector. Results show some albeit relatively weak evidence of a pollution haven effect for imported intermediate materials.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished