The Role of Economic Advisers within a Minister’s Office: An Analysis of the Creation of a Negative Income Tax in France[L’activité de conseiller économique au sein d’un cabinet ministériel : analyse à partir du cas de la création d’une forme d’impôt négatif en France]

This article draws on archives from the Prime Minister's Office to examine the creation of a form of negative income tax in France. The analysis of this material invites us to reconsider the allegedly decisive role of economic knowledge in this reform, by showing how multiple constraints—political (visibility for electoral purposes, coalition dynamics), legal (Constitutional Council rulings), bureaucratic (administrative simplicity), and accounting (the treatment of the tax credit as a reduction in compulsory levies)—shaped not only the final decisions but also, upstream, the arguments advanced by the economic advisers. Taking part in the collective work of a ministerial cabinet, economic advisers do not confine themselves to "stating what is optimal" from the standpoint of economic analysis. Irrespective of their dominance in the academic field and influence in the political arena, economic ideas appear to have limited power, whether to influence decisions in their favour or to legitimise them after the fact. The article also sheds new light on the activity of economic advisors within a ministerial cabinet and his or her participation in government work.