Cahiers de recherche en économie-gestion

The monetary valuation of human life is both controversial and complex, giving rise to passionate debate and profound ethical dilemmas. This article uses a new method to measure the value of human life based on a marginal valuation of the individual’s available time over her life cycle. The results of an empirical application carried out in two African countries on microeconomic data reveal a significant divergence in the valuation of human life within the population, which may illuminate discussions on the ethical issues of a differential valuation of human life. This finding calls into question the usual ethical considerations and social equity thesis and shows that this individual estimation of the value of human life may be an interesting indicator for public choice.

This paper examines Gottfried Haberler’s early theoretical work on index numbers as a unique point of convergence between the Austrian School of Economics and the tradition of Logical Empiricism. While these schools are often seen as methodologically opposed - the former grounded in subjectivism and praxeology, the latter in formal logic and empirical verification - Haberler’s 1927 habilitation thesis Der Sinn der Indexzahlen exemplifies a productive synthesis of their core principles. The paper begins by outlining the epistemological and methodological foundations of the Austrian School, with emphasis on its subjective theory of value and skepticism toward aggregate measurement. It then summarizes key tenets of Logical Empiricism, particularly its insistence on observable phenomena, operational definitions, and formal rigor. Against this backdrop, Haberler’s analysis of price indices is shown to combine the Austrian emphasis on individual choice and subjectivity with the logical empiricist demand for formal discipline and observational grounding.. The result is a methodological hybrid that both anticipates and complicates later debates over the role of formalism and empiricism in economic theory. By recovering this underappreciated moment of methodological cross-pollination, the paper contributes to a more nuanced understanding of 20th-century economic thought.

For Menger, the explanation of the emergence of institutions without a general will motivating their creation constitutes the central problem of the social sciences. He refutes any role of the state in the origin of money, while not rejecting its involvement in the process of perfecting the monetary system. This article analyzes Menger’s reasoning on the organic origin of the institution of money, its essence, and the implications of its establishment within the market. Furthermore, it examines the role of the state in the emergence and evolution of the institution of money.

This paper offers a unique age-cohort analysis of French wage inequalities and inequality of opportunity using the French Demographic Sample. We observe the childhood circumstances of individuals born between 1958 and 1980 in census data from 1975 and 1990 and track their yearly wages throughout their salaried life in administrative payroll data from 1984 to 2018. We find that inequalities increase substantially throughout life and decrease slowly across cohorts. Additionally, we show that father’s education is the main driver of inequality of opportunity and that one’s own education not only transmits but amplifies the effect of childhood circumstances on wages. 

Dominant culture-centric models in international business (IB) negotiation research often overlook the influence of intra-national religious diversity and its interplay with specific institutional contexts. This study challenges these models by examining how religious values and a powerful, faith-based institutional system jointly shape negotiation strategy. Drawing on Neo-Institutional Theory (NIT), this paper analyzes qualitative data from 40 in-depth interviews with senior Lebanese managers from diverse religious backgrounds (Muslim, Christian, and Druze) with extensive IB negotiation experience. The study reveals that Lebanese negotiators navigate a tension between two competing institutional logics: a “logic of universal religious ethics” (derived from faith values like honesty and fairness), which fosters a preference for integrative strategies, and a “logic of sectarian pragmatism” (derived from Lebanon’s confessional system), which encourages more distributive tactics. Managers engage in “strategic code-switching,” selectively deploying these logics based on the negotiation context (intra-Lebanon vs. cross-border), the dyadic pairing (e.g., intra-faith vs. faith-secular), and the deal structure (e.g., international joint ventures (IJV) vs. sales). This dynamic is most salient in the critical pre-negotiation phase of partner selection and trust-building. This study advances IB negotiation theory by providing a granular, institutionally-embedded conceptual model of negotiator behavior that moves beyond monolithic views of culture. It contributes to NIT by empirically illustrating how actors strategically navigate conflicting logics at the micro-level and enriches the study of religion in IB by specifying the mechanisms through which faith shapes strategy. Practically, the findings highlight the need for managers to develop deep institutional acumen to succeed in complex, multi-faith markets.

Governments attempt to stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation in various ways and with different results. In 2015 the Romanian government began to subsidize the creation of start-ups, following a general policy of the European Union. We evaluate the effects of the Romania Start-up Program, which offered subsidies for hundreds of entrepreneurs in a large variety of economic sectors. We statistically compare subsidized and unsubsidized start-ups, by calculating the Kaplan-Meier estimators of survival rates in both groups over a 5-year period. We show that subsidized start-ups have a significantly lower survival rate than non-subsidized start-ups after 4 to 5 years. Moreover, the level of employment in subsidized start-ups decreased drastically compared to their non-subsidized counterparts. Examining the survival rates of subsidized start-ups created with and without additional private investment, we find that start-ups with “skin in the game” have a higher survival rate, although we cannot draw statistically significant conclusions.

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk argued in his book The Positive Theory of Capital that longer production processes are more physically productive because the additional time allows for more capital goods to be produced which enhances the productivity of the original factors of production. He and many subsequent economists assume that there are diminishing returns to the length of the production process because the law of diminishing marginal productivity applies to the capital stock. However, the law is misapplied to the length of production because the latter violates the assumption that the units of the factor of production are homogeneous. We argue that there is a resistance to diminishing returns in the nature of the length of production due to the division of labor and the exploitation of complementarity between heterogeneous capital goods, and that this resistance may even yield increasing returns as the number of stages of production increases.

Vera Smith (1936) called Mountifort Longfield’s argument “by far the most important controversial point in the theory of free banking.” However, the modern literature on free banking scarcely mentions Longfield, despite his rediscovery or rehabilitation as an important economist and representative of the Irish subjective school (Moss, 1976; Tait, 1982; Rothbard, 1995).

Longfield’s argument turn on the effectiveness of interbank clearing in limiting overissue by any one bank. While the modern free-banking school (White, 1984; Selgin, 1988) sees an effective limit on overexpansion in the clearing mechanism (the principle of adverse clearings), as an expanding bank will lose reserves, Longfield (1971 [1840]) argued that this is not so. While the expanding bank will lose reserves as it expands, thereafter a new equilibrium will emerge in interbank clearing. The expanding bank will have a lower reserve ratio, but so will all banks, and the expanding bank will successfully have acquired a larger share of the market.

Longfield’s argument concerns a key proposition of the free banking school, namely that there is a sharp limit, in the form of the law of adverse clearings, to overexpansion by any one bank. If Longfield’s challenge succeed, then the free banking system falls, but this does not mean that we must accept Longfield’s own conclusion to the superiority of a monopoly of the note issue.

While the debates in the 19th century were concerned mainly with note-issuing banks, the principal point is the ability and effects of banks issuing unbacked money substitutes, whatever their form. Longfield’s argument will therefore be extended to the case of demand deposits. A free banking system is not safe from the problem of overexpansion, as it is in the interest of every bank to join the expansion once one bank increases its issues, whatever their form.

Mises et ses disciples ont souvent soutenu que la demande de monnaie à détenir a quelque chose à voir avec l'incertitude mais rien à voir avec les préférences temporelles, le taux d'intérêt pur et les choix intertemporels. Cependant, Hülsmann (2009) a remis en question cette idée d'une demande de monnaie « temporellement neutre », arguant d'une part qu'une augmentation de sa demande déclencherait un processus d'arbitrage entraînant une augmentation du taux d'intérêt pur, et d'autre part que la monnaie est plus généralement un bien présent. Nous revisitons ici la théorie de la demande d'encaisses monétaires et les relations entre celles-ci et les échanges intertemporels. Nous soutenons que la demande de monnaie n'est effectivement pas neutre par rapport aux choix intertemporels, mais pas en tant que demande pour un bien présent. Au contraire, nous concluons qu'une diminution (/augmentation) de la demande de monnaie et une augmentation (/diminution) du ratio investissement/consommation (ou, selon le cas, une diminution (/augmentation) des encaisses monétaires futures et un déplacement des dépenses des investissements à court terme vers les investissements à long terme (/des investissements à LT vers les investissements à ST)) peuvent être comprises comme deux aspects du même phénomène impliqué dans la diminution (/augmentation) de l'incertitude perçue ou de l'aversion pour l'incertitude. Ainsi, la demande d'encaisses monétaires s’appréhende mieux comme une demande de biens futurs. Par conséquent, nous soutenons également qu'elle est également affectée par les préférences temporelles et nous présentons certaines implications de cette idée en ce qui concerne la configuration de la structure de production.

Austrian price theory is riddled with inconsistencies surrounding the neoclassical income effect and Giffen behavior. It has sometimes been argued that neither the income effect nor Giffen behavior exist. This paper first argues that Giffen behavior is possible and can perfectly well be explained within the framework of Austrian price theory in the tradition of Mses. Moreover, it shows that income effects are real. They are merely an outgrowth of the law of diminishing marginal utility applied to money. The paper also outlines the expenditure approach to income and substitution effects as an alternative conceptualization that does not require any reference to quantifiable and measurable notions of utility, or an unambiguous and objective notion of real income.  

Murray N. Rothbard’s Toward a Reconstruction of Utility and Welfare Economics is the defining contribution outlining the Austrian school’s approach to welfare theory. A recent attack on this approach is by Wysocki and Dominiak (2023a), who argue, contra Rothbard, that whether an exchange is welfare-enhancing is not necessarily related to whether that exchange is just, and therefore the Rothbardian framework is wrong. This paper shows that their argument misconceives how Austrians treat the concept of welfare. They also misunderstand the crucial role of the principle of demonstrated preference. Properly conceived, Rothbard’s reconstruction remains intact.

This paper explores the concept of the value of time within economic decision-making, comparing it with wage rates and evaluating its role in household utility maximization. The study extends Becker’s theory of time allocation by introducing generalizations for multiple opportunity costs of time. Key approaches include Cobb-Douglas and CES utility specifications to determine time values for various activities, supported by empirical analyses across several countries. The findings suggest significant variation in the valuation of time based on activity type, household characteristics, and technological constraints, providing a nuanced understanding of time as an economic resource.

This paper traces the historical development of the opportunity cost of time, beginning with Stanley Jevons. It is only in the recent past that the various factors influencing the opportunity cost of non-market time have been elucidated. However, the literature that highlights the discrepancy between the wage rate and the opportunity cost of time has been largely overlooked by economists, who have instead relied on the leisure-income model for empirical applications. The forgotten literature, which is recovered in this paper, calls for a closer examination of those empirical applications, and it offers a new perspective on labor supply paradigms.

The rise of Bitcoin and similar digital payment systems presents significant challenges to the traditional fiat money system, igniting renewed discourse on the fundamental nature of money. Austrian economists devote considerable attention to the analysis and understanding of cryptocurrencies. This interest stems from three pivotal elements of Austrian monetary theory: Carl Menger’s theory of the origin of money, Ludwig von Mises’ theory of the value of money, and Friedrich August von Hayek’s concept of competitive currencies. This paper explores Bitcoin through the perspective of Austrian monetary theory. In particular, the article analyses key questions, such as whether Bitcoin’s emergence aligns with the evolutionary origins of money and its relationship to Mises’ regression theorem; it explores Bitcoin’s role in the broader context of Hayek’s currency competition.

Cet article présente une synthèse des enseignements de la doctrine sociale de l’Eglise catholique concernant la famille. Il montre en particulier la constance des principes, en particulier sur le rôle central de cette institution dans la société, et les enrichissements constants de cette doctrine depuis ses origines jusqu’aux enseignements des derniers papes.

Cet article propose une illustration concrète de l’instauration d’un chèque éducation, mesure préconisée par Milton Friedman dès 1962, en la mettant dans une perspective internationale afin d’illustrer la diversité des mesures possibles et les avantages et inconvénients des diverses applications envisageables.

L’investissement éducatif au sein de la famille constitue un élément majeur de cette institution, comme l’ont reconnu toutes les écoles économiques, en particulier depuis l’apparition de la théorie du capital humain à la fin du siècle dernier (théorie qui avait été anticipée dès le début de ce siècle). Cet investissement comporte trois dimensions : l’accompagnement scolaire parental, le rôle de la fratrie et la transmission d’un patrimoine éthique.

Cet article propose une synthèse des principaux travaux concernant l’évaluation économique du travail domestique. Il montre qu’il s’agit d’une question assez ancienne dans l’analyse économique et que la valeur économique des activités domestiques représente, selon les méthodes d’évaluation, de 22 à 55% du Produit Intérieur brut (dont environ 35% en France). Une Annexe préparée par Xavier de Yturbe fournit quelques éléments statistiques sur les prestations familiales en France.

L’article examine les implications du plan « climat-biodiversité » du gouvernement français pour l’enseignement supérieur et la recherche.
Après avoir rappelé les raisons d’être de l’université et des libertés universitaires, il montre en quoi le rôle que le gouvernement attribue aux
universitaires dans la promotion de ses politiques de transition écologique est incompatible avec ces libertés et l’idée d’université. L’article montre aussi que, dans ce contexte, le gouvernement promeut et presse les universitaires d’adopter une vision déformée de l’état de l’art dans des disciplines pertinentes et, plus généralement, une conception pervertie de la science.

Using a generalization of Becker’s time allocation model in order to estimate the shadow price of time, we explore the relationship between it and the inter-temporal substitution rate, allowing the endogenization of the time preference from the estimation of the opportunity cost of time. Two models are developped implying a positive relationship between them and an evaluation of the inter-temporal rate at 10%.

The resilience of the German banking system is studied on the semi-aggregated level from 1968 to 2022. We distinguish between Large Banks, Regional Banks, Landesbanken, Sparkassen and Credit Unions and study their z-scores as a measure of resilience in response to the monetary pol- icy stances of the Bundesbank and the ECB, respectively. We estimate two-way fixed effects panel regression models for both periods separately. The results suggest that monetary policy was more effective in enhancing resilience during the period of a national currency controlled by the Deutsche Bundesbank. The effect across bank types is much more heterogeneous after the inception of the ECB. In particular, decreasing resilience of Large Banks is associated with expansionary (un)conventional monetary policy in recent years.