Sylvie Charlot

Cities and Workplace Communication: Some Quantitative French Evidence

This paper uses a unique labour force survey to document workplace communication patterns in urban, suburban and rural areas. A number of interesting stylised facts are distilled relating to workplace communication: its intensity, within-firm communication, communication external to the firm and the media being used with a special focus on information technologies. The paper also investigates the complementarities across different media of communication and the evolution over time of workplace communication patterns. It is found that cities foster communication external to the firm and the use of telecommunications. By contrast, the hypothesis of a greater prevalence of face-to-face communication in cities does not receive much empirical validation. Also, complementarities across media do not lend much support to popular predictions about the forthcoming demise of cities following the replacement of face-to-face meetings by telecommunications.

Do agglomeration forces strengthen tax interactions

The main purpose of this paper is to assess the existence of tax interdependencies among French local tax setting by taking into account the agglomeration forces. A model of tax setting for the local business tax is estimated using spatial econometrics techniques for 2002. First, it is shown that the mimicking behaviour between jurisdictions is not more intense in denser areas—in population or economic activity terms—suggesting that tax competition is not stronger as agglomeration increases. Secondly, a positive relationship is observed between tax rate and capital stock only for urban jurisdictions, suggesting a ‘taxable agglomeration rent’, as highlighted by new economic geography models.

Does fiscal cooperation increase local tax rates in urban areas

Charlot S., Paty S. and Piguet V. Does fiscal cooperation increase local tax rates in urban areas?, Regional Studies. The main purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of fiscal cooperation on local taxation in a decentralized country using experience in French urban municipalities. A tax-setting model for local business tax is estimated, using spatial and panel econometric techniques, for the period 1993–2003. Controlling for population size, it is found that fiscal cooperation is likely to reduce tax competition and, as a consequence, to increase local business tax rates.

Assessing the impact of local taxation on property prices: a spatial matching contribution

This article provides empirical evidence on the impact of local taxation on property prices, controlling for the local public spending, using data on property taxation and real estate transactions, over the period 1994–2004. Our empirical methodology pairs transactions in the same spatial environments. Spatial differencing and Instrumental Variables (IV) methodology allow us to compare sales across municipality boundaries and to control for the potential endogeneity of local taxation and public spending. Our results suggest that the local Property Tax (PT) rate has no impact on property prices, while the amount of taxes paid appears to have a negative effect on property price.