Are scientific arguments used for analysing "sustainable development" ? This issue is at the core of the EBP-biosoc research project of which we present a few aspects on the use of scientific knowledge through "Evidence Based Policy" method. The use of such a framework in social sciences...

This article deals with public debt dynamics in France. It also analyses several contemporary debates such as Ricardian equivalence, sustainability and budget balance decomposition. Public deficit is not necessarily the result of a Keynesian type of expansionary fiscal policy. It can also stem...

This paper sums up the Marxian analysis of the capitalist exploitation process. The double aspect of direction is emphasized. Notions of formal and real exploitation are used to show that division of labor is less the way to improve productivity than to increase the capital's share of the...

This paper sums up the Marxian analysis of the capitalist exploitation process. The double aspect of direction is emphasized. Notions of formal and real exploitation are used to show that division of labor is less the way to improve productivity than to increase the capital's share of the...

Il peut sembler aujourd'hui quelque peu déplacé de se demander, comme le faisait Stephen Marglin au début des années 1970 : mais au juste, à quoi servent les patrons ? Pourquoi, dans les entreprises, le travail est-il divisé entre certains individus spécialisés dans la décision et le...

This article highlights the importance of power relations in inter-firm relations and analyses their impact on firms' employment management practices. We show, firstly, that the use of subcontracting creates a chain of inter-firm economic dependency because it leads the principal contractor to...

What does remain from Alchian and Demsetz' contribution to the theory of the firm ? This paper appraises, from the point of view of the history of economic thought, Alchian and Demsetz' contribution on the theory of the firm. This celebrated contribution can be considered partly as a reply to...

The proposals aiming at reducing or making more flexible job protection are built upon the hypothesis according to which firms are forced to adapt toincreasing uncertainty of demand and activity. Analysing firms' behaviour in French industry, this paper shows that the increase in sub-contracting...

Technical determinism is often presented as a shortcoming of the old neoclassical approach of which the « new theories » are supposed to be ridded. This paper shows that technical determinism is nevertheless still present.

For about twenty years, the notion of authority has been put forward again into the analysis of employment relationship, especially concerning contracts incompleteness. This article has two purposes. First, it aims at giving an assessment of the famous controversy between Coase and...