Offre et demande

L'offre et la demande est un modèle économique de détermination des prix dans un marché. Notamment utilisé en microéconomie, ce modèle énonce que, certaines hypothèses étant respectées, le fonctionnement d'un marché permet au prix unitaire du bien vendu sur ce marché de varier jusqu'à ce que où la quantité demandée soit égale à la quantité fournie. Il résulte ainsi un équilibre économique entre le prix offert et la quantité demandée. La loi de l'offre et de la demande doit toutefois respecter plusieurs hypothèses, parmi lesquelles la ceteris paribus (toutes choses étant égales par ailleurs), que le marché soit concurrentiel, que chaque prix unitaire soit négocié, qu'aucune entreprise sur le marché ne puisse décider unilatéralement du prix (price taker) Histoire de la théorie Si le mécanisme de l'offre et de la demande existe dès lors que des offreurs et des demandeurs se rencontrent pour négocier, la théorie de l'offre et de la demande dispose, elle, d'une histoire. Selo

Environmental policies: designing acceptable road pricing and voluntary waste sorting schemes

Linda Melina Tesauro

Growing urban population implies many challenges for the municipalities in terms of mobility, housing, waste management or infrastructures. Public policies are thus needed to ensure a sustainable development. The main objective of this thesis is to analyze different environmental policies in the domain of mobility and waste management in order to help municipalities in designing more efficient measures.Firstly, Chapter 2 focuses on traffic congestion and in particular the acceptability of a congestion charge. We design a large survey with different plausible schemes for the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland and assess their acceptability with a discrete choice experiment (DCE). Results show that public support depends crucially on the policy design and the information provided. We find an important demand for exemptions and a preference for constant pricing. This implies a clear trade-off between efficiency and acceptability. However, the gap can be partly closed by information provision. Analyzing heterogeneity, we observe that preferences vary according to personal characteristics, especially where people live and how they commute.Chapter 3 analyzes the determinants of households' municipal waste sorting. We design a survey to investigate households' sorting motivation and use a DCE to assess households' waste sorting scheme preferences in the Canton of Geneva. We observe that households' waste sorting depends on personal characteristics such as sensitivity to the environment, guilty conscience or information level. However, it is the satisfaction with the existing sorting scheme that increases most the probability to sort waste. Our results show clear preferences for better infrastructures, but with thresholds. Interestingly, the best infrastructures and services are not always needed. By looking at heterogeneity and linking personal beliefs and characteristics with preferences, we find different groups sorting a similar number of categories, but with different underlying mechanisms like a lack of knowledge or a need for more convenient infrastructures and services.To complement our analysis on voluntary policies and in particular on the effectiveness of convenient infrastructures, Chapter 4 assesses a new voluntary environmental policy implemented in the Canton of Geneva and compares the results with a bag tax, a monetary incentive policy introduced in the neighboring canton, Vaud. The voluntary policy consists of the distribution to households of specific bins for organic waste to increase the sorting rate and decrease the amount of unsorted waste. We use a difference-in-differences methodology to assess the causal impact of the policy on organic waste as well as on overall waste generation. We find that the introduction of the voluntary policy increases significantly the proportion of households sorting organic waste. Interestingly, we observe some positive spillover effects on other waste sorted. By comparing the voluntary policy in the Canton of Geneva and the bag tax in the Canton of Vaud, we find similar effects on organic waste sorting. However, the impact of the voluntary policy is smaller on unsorted waste than the short-term effect of the bag tax.In conclusion, we show that price is not the only factor to consider in environmental policies. More stringent policies can be acceptable if well designed. Furthermore, the power of non-monetary incentives should not be underestimated.

EPFL2022

Monopsony with nominal rigidities: An inverted Phillips Curve

Charles Cosme Henri Dennery

With nominal wage rigidities, it is crucial to distinguish whether wages are set by workers or firms — whether we have monopoly or monopsony power. This paper provides a model of monopsony power in the labour market and a monopsonistic Phillips Curve. If wages are set by firms who face nominal rigidities, and there is inflation, firms cannot adjust their wages fully. The real wage falls, and labour supply hence output decreases. This provides a Phillips Curve where the output gap is negatively correlated with wage inflation. In such a world monetary policy affects the intertemporal labour supply, while the Phillips Curve is a labour demand curve. Interest rate cuts reduce the labour supply instead of boosting demand: they are contractionary.

2020

Environmental policies: designing acceptable road pricing and voluntary waste sorting schemes

Linda Melina Tesauro

EPFL2022

Environmental policies: designing acceptable road pricing and voluntary waste sorting schemes

Monopsony with nominal rigidities: An inverted Phillips Curve

Supply/demand equilibrium in transport, freight transalpine case

Monopsony with nominal rigidities: An inverted Phillips Curve

Supply/demand equilibrium in transport, freight transalpine case

Environmental policies: designing acceptable road pricing and voluntary waste sorting schemes