Transatlantic employment performances and job polarization.

Summary This thesis explores the implications of technical progress and labor taxation on employment performance in France and the United States over the past four decades. Chapter 1 assesses the extent to which differences in socio-demographic and occupational structures between countries explain the French employment deficit. This deficit reflects not only a deficient labor market, but also a reallocation of work that affects the employment prospects and participation decisions of specific sociodemographic groups. Chapter 2 examines the determinants of unskilled employment performance in France between 1982 and 2008. Technical progress and labor taxation policies are key to understanding the deterioration of unskilled employment. The reallocation of unskilled labor from routine jobs to manual jobs induced by technical progress is partly hindered by the presence of the non-market sector. Labor taxation interacts with technical progress by changing the value of unskilled jobs relative to non-market labor. Chapter 3 studies the implications of routine technology shocks on economic fluctuations between 1989 and 2017 in the United States. It assesses their impact by estimating a structural VAR model. Technology shocks biased against routine tasks explain the recessionary effects of technology shocks on hours worked. These shocks appear quantitatively relevant and generate recognizable business cycle fluctuations.