Gregory Verdugo

Public Housing and Residential Segregation of Immigrants in France, 1968-1999

This article studies uses census data to study the residential segregation of immigrants in France from 1968 to 1999 and its links with public housing, in urban areas of more than 50,000 inhabitants, and between these areas. During this period, European and non-European immigrant segregation followed diverging trends. At the macro-geographical level, the results indicate a decrease in the concentration of immigrants across urban areas, notably for non-European immigrants living in public housing. Within urban areas, national origin segregation was predominant until 1968 for all groups and declined afterward, particularly for European immigrants. For non-European immigrants in public housing, the decline in segregation by national origin has been counterbalanced by an increase in segregation by continent or sub-continent of origin. This can be partly explained by the clustering of immigrants of different national origins in the same public housing neighbourhoods. In 1999, immigrants in public housing experienced higher segregation levels than immigrants in private housing, particularly non-European immigrants. However, no relationship was found between differences in average arrival year and differences in segregation levels across immigrant groups.

Real Wage Cyclicality in the Eurozone Before and During the Great Recession: Evidence from Micro Data

We study the response of real wages to the business cycle in eight major Eurozone countries before and during the Great Recession. Average real wages are found to be acyclical, but this reflects, in large part, the effect of changes in the composition of the labour force related to unemployment variations over the cycle. Using longitudinal micro data from the ECHP and SILC panels to control for composition effects, we estimate the elasticities of real wage growth to unemployment increases between −0.6 and −1 over the period 1994–2011. Composition effects have been particularly large since 2008, and they explain most of the stagnation or increase in the average wage observed in some countries from 2008 to 2011. In contrast, at a constant labour force composition in terms of education and experience, the figures indicate a significant decrease in average wages during the downturn, particularly in countries most affected by the crisis. Overall, there is no evidence of downward nominal wage rigidity during the Great Recession in most countries in our sample.

Forty Years of Immigrant Segregation in France, 1968-2007: How Different is the New Immigration?

Analysing restricted access census data, this paper examines the long-term trends of immigrant segregation in France from 1968 to 2007. Similarly to other European countries, France experienced a rise in the proportion of immigrants in its population that was characterised by a new predominance of non-European immigration. Despite this, average segregation levels remained moderate. While the number of immigrant enclaves increased, particularly during the 2000s, the average concentration for most groups decreased because of a reduction of heavily concentrated census tracts, and census tracts with few immigrants. Contradicting frequent assertions, neither mono-ethnic census tracts nor ghettos exist in France. By contrast, many immigrants live in census tracts characterised by a low proportion of immigrants from their own group and from all origins. A long residential period in France is correlated with lower concentrations and proportion of immigrants in the census tract for most groups, though these effects are sometimes modest.

The Behaviour of French Firms During the Crisis: Evidence from the Wage Dynamics Network Survey

In coordination with the ECB and 24 other national central banks of the European Union, the Banque de France interrogated 1150 French firms to understand how the crisis affected their economic environment and their human resources practices during the 2010-2013 period. A majority of workers were employed by firms which indicate that their activity was mostly affected by a decrease in demand considered as long-lasting by more than 40% of them, especially in the construction sector and among small firms. In contrast, less than 20% of firms (weighted by their employment) report that the unavailability of credit had an effect on their activity. Over the period, despite the economic downturn, the amount of total costs increased for 70% of firms (weighted by their employment) mainly through an increase in labour costs and secondly in the cost of supplies. In particular, base wages continued to increase for a large share of firms, suggesting strong downward wage rigidities. Many firms indicate substantial difficulties in adjusting the labour force: throughout the crisis it became more difficult to hire qualified employees, to adjust working hours or to move workers to different job positions. The joint presence of difficulties in finding employees and unemployment growth suggest that structural unemployment increased in France in recent years. Other factors considered as significantly constraining for employment growth by a large majority of firms are uncertainty about economic conditions, risks that labour laws are changed, high payroll taxes and firing costs.

Ségrégation et incorporation des immigrés en France

En multipliant les approches methodologiques, cet article brosse le paysage segregatif des immigres en France de 1968 a 2007, grâce a l’utilisation inedite des donnees de six recensements. De 1968 a 2007, l’intensite de la segregation francaise a baisse au niveau de chaque origine nationale de migrants, mais a progresse pour les immigres pris ensemble. La baisse par origine nationale vient des effets conjoints de la retraction des quartiers tres segregues et des quartiers d’entre-soi de natifs. Quant a la hausse de la segregation des immigres pris ensemble, elle trouve sa source dans la recomposition de l’immigration – d’europeenne a non europeenne – au cours de ces quarante ans. L’etude montre aussi l’absence de quartiers peuples d’une unique origine nationale. Enfin, la focalisation sur les « quartiers dont on parle » masque l’incorporation residentielle de la tres grande majorite des migrants, meme non europeens, contrariant ainsi les frequentes representations d’une immigration ghettoisee.

Can Public Housing Decrease Segregation? Lessons and Challenges From Non-European Immigration in France

Recent decades have seen a rapid increase in the share of non-European immigrants in public housing in Europe, which has led to concern regarding the rise of ghettos in large cities. Using French census data over three decades, we examine how this increase in public housing participation has affected segregation. While segregation levels have increased moderately, on average, the number of immigrant enclaves has grown. The growth of enclaves is being driven by the large increase in non-European immigrants in the census tracts where the largest housing projects are located, both in the housing projects and the surrounding nonpublic dwellings. As a result, contemporary differences in segregation levels across metropolitan areas are being shaped by the concentration of public housing within cities, in particular the share of non-European immigrants in large housing projects constructed before the 1980s. Nevertheless, the overall effect of public housing on segregation has been ambiguous. While large projects have increased segregation, the inflows of non-European immigrants into small projects have brought many immigrants into census tracts where they have previously been rare and, thus, diminished segregation levels.

Changes in Wage Inequality in France: The Impact of Composition Effects (in French)

This paper investigates the recent changes in the French wage structure from 1990 to 2008. To do so, we disentangle the impact of changes in employment probability, changes in the levels of education and experience and changes in the price of labor. Unlike other developped countries, we find that upper and lower tail inequality decline between the first and the last decile for male and female. The recent period thus could be described as a period of “great compression” of wages between the first and the last decile. As a result, the decline in education and experience returns has produced one of the most egalitarian wage structure ever observed in France since the 1960s.