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Profitability, Employment and Structural Adjustment in France

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  • Pentti J.K. Kouri
  • Jorge Braga de Macedo
  • Albert J. Viscio

Abstract

In this paper, we present a dynamic model which explains output, enployment and energy consumption in the French manufacturing sector in terms of the expectedand actual path of wage rates and energy prices in units of output. The modelhas two distinguishing features: First, the rate of capacity utilization isdetermined explicitly from profit-maximizing behavior and it is viewed as the crucial adjusting variable in the short run. Second, we assume complete lack of substitutability between capital, labor and energy inputs ex post.The model is motivated by a brief discussion of French growth, focusing on the decline of profitability and employment in manufacturing, and simulated using annual data from 1950 to 1979. The wage explosion and the energy shock of the early seventies are interpreted (in a model allowing for overhead labor) in terms of changes in expected real factor prices,and their effects on the utilizationand the profitability of each vintage are quantified. Aggregating over vintages,the model generates the observed decline in profitability and utilization of existing capacity. The results of the simulation are very encouraging, and a simultaneous estimation of the model under static expectations is rejected by the data. There are two limitations of the analysis which will be relaxed in further work. Investment is exogenous and open-economy aspects only appear indirectly, say via constraints on the energy price and the price of output.

Suggested Citation

  • Pentti J.K. Kouri & Jorge Braga de Macedo & Albert J. Viscio, 1982. "Profitability, Employment and Structural Adjustment in France," NBER Working Papers 1005, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:1005
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Anderson, G J, 1981. "A New Approach to the Empirical Investigation of Investment Expenditures," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 91(361), pages 88-103, March.
    2. Anna J. Schwartz, 1987. "Secular Price Change in Historical Perspective," NBER Chapters, in: Money in Historical Perspective, pages 78-109, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Zvi Griliches, 1998. "Comparing Productivity Growth: An Exploration of French and U.S. Industrial and Firm Data," NBER Chapters, in: R&D and Productivity: The Econometric Evidence, pages 157-186, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. R. M. Solow & J. Tobin & C. C. Weizsäcker & M. Yaari, 1971. "Neoclassical Growth with Fixed Factor Proportions," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: F. H. Hahn (ed.), Readings in the Theory of Growth, chapter 9, pages 68-102, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Winston, Gordon C, 1977. "Capacity: An Integrated Micro and Macro Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(1), pages 418-422, February.
    6. Bean, Charles R, 1981. "An Econometric Model of Manufacturing Investment in the UK," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 91(361), pages 106-121, March.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Helliwell, John F. & Sturm, Peter H. & Salou, Gerard, 1985. "International comparison of the sources of productivity slowdown 1973-1982," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(1-2), pages 157-191.

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