Job Market Paper

Abstract: In this paper, I investigate the impact of mass layoffs on firms’ wage-setting power within local labor markets. Using a sample of French firms, I estimate firm-level markdowns - the ratio between firms’s marginal revenue product of labor and wages - as a proxy for their monopsony power. Exhaustive matched employer-employee data enable me to identify mass layoffs. I use a difference-in-differences strategy relying on ‘decreasing exposure with distance. I find that mass layoffs increase by 3\% local firms’ markdowns, with a more pronounced effect observed for firms close to the mass layoff (less than 2.5 km). Furthermore, this impact is stronger in less dense local labor markets, highlighting how shocks to local markets exacerbate disparities in monopsony power between regions. Monopsony power over incumbent workers increases, as the wage-separation elasticity -how the probability of leaving a firm varies with the wage policy of the firm- decreases by 10\%. This increase in monopsony power is partly driven by displaced workers’ distaste for long-distance reallocation, increasing local firm market power.

Presentations: HEC Brown bag seminar (Paris), CREST PhD seminar, Research seminar (HEC), ENSAI

Publication

Abstract: Workers’ propensity to migrate to another local labor market varies a lot by occupation. We use the model developed by Schmutz and Sidibé (2019) to quantify the impact of mobility costs and search frictions on this mobility gap. We estimate the model on a matched employer-employee panel dataset describing labor market transitions within and between the 30 largest French cities for two groups at both ends of the occupational spectrum and find that: (i) mobility costs are very comparable in the two groups, so they are three times higher for blue-collar workers relative to their respective expected income; (ii) Depending on employment status, spatial frictions are between 2 and 3 times higher for blue-collar workers; (iii) Moving subsidies have little (and possibly negative) impact on the mobility gap, contrary to policies targeting spatial frictions; (iv) Mobility-enhancing policies have almost no impact on the unemployment gap.
Presentations: AMSE PhD seminar (2020), UEA virtual meeting (2020).

Abstract: We investigate how broadband internet access affects firms market power in both product and labor markets. Combining balance sheet data for firms with matched employer-employee data, we estimate firm-level markups and markdowns. We find substantial differences across sectors and firms in the level of both markups and markdowns. For our difference-in-differences design, we exploit the staggered introduction of broadband internet in France in the early 2000s. We provide evidence that access to broadband internet increases markups. This is particularly true when firms are able to exploit the new technology to reap benefits from globalization, both through cheaper inputs and more export activity. We also show that the most productive firms primarily raise their markups in re/sponse to obtaining access to broadband internet. At the same time, markdowns fall when firms obtain access to fast internet due to more efficient worker representation. Further, we provide evidence that the internet leveled the playing field between low- and high-skilled workers. This is because low-skilled workers profit more from changing employers.
Presentations: AMSE PhD seminar, Universitat de Barcelona - Economic Theory Seminar, AMSE eco-lunch, HEC research seminar, ASSET, EALE 2024, JMA 2024.

Abstract: Among a series of environmental measures taken in 2008, the French government implemented 2009 the half-reimbursement by the employer of the public transport costs. This paper aims to estimate the effect of a decrease in commuting costs on job search behavior, using an administrative database with information on employment and un- employment spell. I use an event-study design exploiting variation in the use of public transport at the communal level. I find that a 10pp increase in the treatment intensity increases the commuting distance by 3.2% and the hourly wage by 0.5%. The effect is stronger for women and low-paid workers.
Presentations: AMSE PhD seminar, UEA 2022 (London), EALE 2022 (Padova), IRES Lunch Seminar (Louvain la Neuve), IAAE 2022 (London), LAGV 2022 (Marseille), EALE 2022, 4th Meeting on Transport Economics and Infrastructure (Barcelona), Workshop on spatial inequalities (Paris-Saclay), ADRES 2023 (Paris), LAGV 2023, UEA 2023 (Milan).