Comparaison de la rentabilité des enterprises céréalières biologiques et en transition par rapport aux entreprises conventionnelles au Québec

Les données financières de 92 entreprises agricoles conventionnelles produisant un minimum de 20 hectares de céréales à paille et de 21 entreprises, biologiques ou en phase de transition avancée, cultivant au moins 15 hectares de céréales ont été extraites de la banque de données Agritel pour fins de comparaison. À partir des entreprises conventionnelles, quatre groupes sont formes: bas niveau d'intrants (BNI), haut niveau d'intrants (HNI), rendement faible (extensif) et rendement eleve (intensif).
Pour l'ensemble des céréales, ainsi que pour l'orge, les entreprises biologiques obtiennent des rendements et des charges significativement plus faibles par rapport á l'ensemble des entreprises conventionnelles. Ainsi, les marges brutes sont équivalentes. La dépendence des entreprises biologiques et conventionnelles vis-à-vis des aides gouvemementales contribue toutefois pour une part importante aux résultats obtenus. La rentabilité des entreprises biologiques est comparable à celle des entreprises conventionnelles au niveau global de l'entreprise.
Par rapport aux quatre sous-groupes formés, le groupe biologique se situe, pour les marges brutes sur les cultures entre les groupes les plus performants (groupes BNI et intensif) et les moins rentables (groupes HNI et extensif).
Des logiques de production totalement différentes peuvent done aboutir à des résultats économiques similaires, du moins á court terme.     

A theory of the currency denomination of international trade

The currency denomination of international trade has significant macroeconomic and policy implications. In this paper we solve for the optimal invoicing choice by integrating this microeconomic decision at the level of the firm into a general equilibrium open economy model. Strategic interactions between firms play a critical role. We find that the less competition firms face in foreign markets, as reflected in market share and product differentiation, the more likely they will price in their own currency. We also show that when a set of countries forms a monetary union, the new currency is likely to be used more extensively in trade than the sum of the currencies it replaces.     

The financial content of inflation risks in the euro area

Recent studies have emphasized that survey-based inflation risk measures are informative about future inflation, and thus are useful for monetary authorities. However, these data are typically only available at a quarterly frequency, whereas monetary policy decisions require a more frequent monitoring of such risks. Using the ECB Survey of Professional Forecasters, we show that high-frequency financial market data have predictive power for the low-frequency survey-based inflation risk indicators observed at the end of a quarter. We rely on MIDAS regressions for handling the problem of mixing data with different frequencies that such an analysis implies. We also illustrate that upside and downside risks react differently to financial indicators.     

SALARY INEQUALITY,TEAM SUCCESS,LEAGUE POLICIES,AND THE SUPERSTAR EFFECT

Using a simple model of a team's salary distribution and data from the recent Collective Bargaining Agreement between players and owners in the National Hockey League, I examine the relationship between a team's salary distribution and its winning percentage. I find that teams with higher relative payrolls and lower salary inequality have higher winning percentages. I also find evidence of a superstar effect, in that teams with a higher maximum player salary have higher winning percentages. The results are sensitive, however, to the particular measure of salary inequality used as well as the endogeneity of the salary distribution. (JEL Z22, L83, J52, C33, C26)     

REMOVING THE “VEIL OF IGNORANCE”: NONLINEARITIES IN EDUCATION EFFECTS ON GENDER WAGE INEQUALITIES

A large literature studies the mean gender wage gap in developing countries and finds mixed evidence about the role of education policies in closing gender earnings inequalities. We contribute to this literature by exploring two types of nonlinearities in wage earning regressions: (1) nonlinearities on the effects of education on expected earnings along the distribution of education endowments; and (2) heterogeneities on the contributions of education to the gender wage gap at different quantiles of the wage distribution. Our analyses provide new insights on how these nonlinear effects can be used to set up better targeted gender and development policies. (JEL I26, C14)     

Trade,environment, and income inequality: An optimal taxation approach

In a small open economy, how should a government pursuing both environmental and redistributive objectives design domestic taxes when redistribution is costly? And how does trade liberalization affect the economy's levels of pollution and inequalities, when taxes are optimally and endogenously adjusted? Using a general equilibrium model under asymmetric information with two goods, two factors (skilled and unskilled labor), and pollution, this paper characterizes the optimal mixed tax system (nonlinear income tax and linear commodity and production taxes/subsidies) with both production and consumption externalities. While optimal income taxes are not directly affected by environmental externalities, conditions are derived under which under‐ or over‐internalization of social marginal damage is optimal for redistributive considerations. Assuming that redistribution operates in favor of the unskilled workers and that the dirty sector is intensive in unskilled labor, simulations suggest that trade liberalization involves a clear trade‐off between the reduction of inequalities and the control of pollution when the source of externality is only production; this is not necessarily true with a consumption externality. Finally, an increase in the willingness to redistribute income toward the unskilled results paradoxically in less pollution and more income inequalities.     

Intrahousehold moral hazard frictions and household poverty traps in rural India

We empirically study the role of assets held by women in the creation of household wealth using data from rural India. We design a streamlined model of intrahousehold project funding where moral hazard frictions between spouses and women's asset control are the main ingredients. As predicted by the model, the data show that household asset accumulation depends on women's asset control in a non-monotonic way. Results indicate no presence of multiple equilibrium poverty traps, but do show that exogenous negative shocks will trigger assets aggregation within households where both spouses are present. This resilience mechanism is, however, not found in female headed household as these households have a monotonic relationship between women's wealth control and asset creation. We thus argue that policies to support women's empowerment need to distinguish women based on their individual wealth levels and headship status to enhance household well-being in remote Indian communities.     

2022 KLEIN LECTURE PARENTAL EDUCATION AND INVENTION: THE FINNISH ENIGMA

Why is invention strongly positively correlated with parental income not only in the United States but also in Finland, which displays low income inequality and high social mobility? Using data on 1.45 M Finnish individuals and their parents, we find the following: (i) the positive association between parental income and off-spring probability of inventing is greatly reduced when controlling for parental education; (ii) instrumenting for the parents having an MSc degree using distance to nearest university reveals a large causal effect of parental education on offspring probability of inventing; and (iii) the causal effect of parental education has been markedly weakened by the introduction in the early 1970s of a comprehensive schooling reform.     

How does Internationalisation affect the productivity of R&D activities in large innovative firms? A conditional nonparametric investigation

Quality & Quantity - This work explores the relationship between multinational R&D and innovation productivity among top corporate knowledge and R&D producers by adopting a...