Stéphanie Jamet

The Economics of Climate Change Mitigation

This paper examines the cost of a range of national, regional and global mitigation policies and the corresponding incentives for countries to participate in ambitious international mitigation actions. The paper illustrates the scope for available instruments to strengthen these incentives and discusses ways to overcome barriers to the development of an international carbon price, based on the quantitative assessment from two global and sectorially-disaggregated CGE models. Key step towards the emergence of a single international carbon price will most likely involve the phasing out of subsidies of fossil fuel consumption and various forms of linking between regional carbon markets, ranging from direct linking of existing emission trading systems to more indirect forms through the use of sectoral crediting mechanisms. The paper discusses regulatory issues raised by the expansion of emission trading and crediting schemes as well as the complementary contribution of non-market based instruments such as the imposition of technical standards and R&D policies. Finally, the paper emphasises the important role of international transfers, not least to overcome the relatively strong economic incentives in some countries to free ride on other regions mitigation actions. While they can take various explicit or implicit forms, transfers made primarily through market mechanisms, for instance via the allocation of binding emission reduction commitments across countries, would be most cost-effective.

Improving Labour Market Performance in France

With high unemployment, low participation of specific groups such as the low-skilled and those nearing retirement age, and relatively low average hours worked, France is far from using its full labour potential. Improving the labour market situation would not only increase living standards and growth potential but also reduce social exclusion and ease pressures on public spending. This paper analyses various characteristics of the French labour market that may explain the low utilisation of labour potential. It puts forward the need for a comprehensive reform of the labour market aiming at: i) shifting the burden of social protection in the labour market away from employers towards the state by reducing and streamlining employment protection legislation; ii) removing incentives that lead to early withdrawal from the labour market; iii) allowing employers and employees more freedom to negotiate working hours; and iv) improving efficiency in job placement services.

Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion in France

Reducing poverty and social exclusion is an important objective for all French governments. Even though conventionally measured poverty is in fact lower than in most other countries, it is still higher than can be easily accepted. The current policy approach involves a large number of measures tailored to different circumstances. Some policies have unwanted side effects on labour market performance, and their cost-effectiveness could be improved to obtain better outcomes with the same resources. Concentrations of poverty and social exclusion in certain geographic areas and among certain groups of the population provide one of the most difficult challenges, for which contributions from education, labour market, housing, urban planning and anti-discrimination policies, as well as from the social services, are necessary. This Working Paper relates to the 2007 OECD Economic Survey of France (www.oecd.org/eco/survey/france), and is also available in French under the title “Lutter contre la pauvrete et l’exclusion sociale en France”.

Meeting the Challenges of Decentralisation in France

Despite France’s previously well-deserved reputation as a highly centralised state, a significant number of responsibilities have been devolved to regional and local government over the past two decades. The process has not been easy. The extremely large number of very small municipalities makes economies of scale in the implementation of policies hard to realise, and measures to overcome this have been at best only partially successful. Competence is often shared between levels of government, obscuring accountability, and the central government has often retained an arguably unnecessary degree of prerogatives. Reorganising the system to avoid overlapping responsibilities and improving transparency and accountability in local government finance provide some difficult challenges. This Working Paper relates to the 2007 OECD Economic Survey of France (www.oecd.org/eco/survey/france), and is also available in French under the title “Faire face aux defis de la decentralisation en France”.

Faire face aux défis de la décentralisation en France

En depit de la reputation de la France, autrefois bien meritee, d’etre un Etat tres centralise, un nombre significatif de competences ont ete transferees aux collectivites territoriales au cours des deux dernieres decennies. Le processus n’a pas ete simple. Le nombre excessivement eleve de communes de tres petite taille rend difficile la realisation d’economie d’echelle dans la mise en place des politiques et les mesures qui doivent y remedier n’ont, au mieux, reussi que partiellement. Les competences sont souvent partagees entre les differents niveaux de gouvernement, mettant a mal la responsabilisation et l’Etat a souvent conserve un degre sans aucun doute trop eleve et inutile de prerogatives. Les principaux et difficiles defis consistent a reorganiser le systeme pour eviter les chevauchements de competence et a ameliorer la transparence et la responsabilisation des finances publiques locales. Ce document de travail est en rapport avec l’Etude economique sur la France de l’OCDE de l’annee 2007 (www.oecd.org/eco/survey/france), et est egalement disponible en anglais, avec le titre “Meeting the challenges of decentralisation in France”.