Tag Archives: France

12.24.2012 | Gender Issues: A Swedish and French Mystery

What happens to a woman’s career trajectory when her job is family-friendly? The results have not been what policy makers expected.

In their work lives, Swedish women receive generous paid maternity leave and and can opt for flexible work hours. Politically, the Swedish Parliament has gender balance as do 2 major Swedish political parties’ electoral slates. In France, 17 of President Hollande’s 34 cabinet ministers are female and the French Constitution was amended in 2010 to mandate corporate and public gender equality. In France, Sweden and across the EU, there is a commitment to end gender inequality.

And yet, in France and Sweden, in private industry, men are in charge. Among France’s 87 universities, only 8 presidents are female. In large French law firms, a vast minority of the partners are female. Even when their boards implement gender balance quotas, large corporations have few, if any, females CEOs.

Social scientists are not sure why women are not rising to the top when the work world has made it easier to combine work and family. One theory is children. When labor force participation enables women to divide their time and energy between work and the family, they select the balance. As a result, many do not become the professional alpha women who can compete against committed males who rise to the top.

Monday Gender Issues Posts

Hetty Green and the Pay Gap: 12/17

Sources and Resources: This excellent discussion of “The Plight of the Alpha Female” appeared recently in the City Journal while this paper, “Is There a Glass Ceiling in Sweden?” presents details on the the surprising results of the Swedish family-friendly work environment. Also, you might want to look at an avalanche of gender stats and ideas in this most recent 300+ page OECD report, “Closing the Gender Gap.”

Posted by: adminEcon
Tags: alpha females, Claudia Goldin, feminism, flextime, France, French Constitution, gender gap, glass ceiling, Kay Hymowitz, Marissa Mayer, President Hollande, Sheryl Sandberg, Sweden, work life balance
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12.11.2012 | Homework? It’s About the Economy…

Why would France want to ban homework?

President Hollande has said that less homework means more equality. At home, income makes a difference. Higher income families have children with higher test scores and more help with homework. They have their own bedrooms, their own desk, their own computers, tutors and pressure. How to make all equal? Eliminate the home influence.

Interestingly, more equity does not necessarily mean a lower quality educational system. In The Global Index of Cognitive Skills and Educational Attainment published by Pearson, 39 countries and one region (Hong Kong) were ranked for successful educational outcomes. Finland, with its emphasis on the equity that France seeks, is ranked #1. In Finland, learning is idea and understanding based with almost no homework.

But wait.

Using a totally different approach, South Korea was ranked #2. In South Korea, students do hours of work after school while in the classroom, teachers use a highly disciplined rote learning approach.

And yet, Finland and South Korea are actually not so different. With Finland valuing equity and South Korea, the hard work ethos, both had high-quality teachers, accountability and a moral mission. Ranked lower on the list, the UK was #6, the US, #17 and France, #25. The full list is below.

Who would have thought that a country’s homework philosophy can reflect its economic values?

Sources and Resources: This Louis Menand New Yorker article combined the Hollande proclamation, the Pearson report and a wonderful discussion of the implications. Elsewhere, articles looked at President Hollande’s announcement, here, and the Pearson report, here. And here, is a link to the report itself which I recommend reading. Finally, I especially enjoyed these 26 amazing facts about Finland’s education system from Businessinsider. It sounds like a wonderful recipe for success.

From the Pearson report:

Posted by: adminEcon
Tags: educational systems, Finland, France, homework assignments, idea based learning, President Hollande, rote learning, South Korea, The Global Index of Cognitive Skills and Educational Attainment
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11.16.2012 | Pooches and Prosperity

Chloe and Gus, my daughter’s miniature Pomeranians, consume organic dog food and use wee-wee pads, they visit the vet, the groomer, and enjoy their treats and toys. Because of Chloe and Gus, my cats, and the dogs in 1 out of every 4 households in the US, we have a growing pet industry.

I started listing the discretionary spending that supports Chloe and Gus after reading about the Euromonitor Dog Index for 53 countries. Here are some facts that connect pooch spending to prosperity:

Averaging one dog in every 4 households, the US has the world’s largest pooch population. But Norway does the most per capita pup spending at $639 while Switzerland and Australia ranked 2 and 3.

In the developing world, Brazil, with a more affluent urban population, has the most small dogs per capita. But the biggest proportional increase in dog ownership was led by India, and then the Philippines, Venezuela, Russia, and Argentina. Still though, while dog ownership in India rose 58% during the past 5 years, they have only 4 dogs per thousand people. By contrast, dog ownership in the Middle-East is much less popular. In Saudi Arabia and Egypt, with only 2 dogs for every thousand people, dog ownership is rare and typically relates to big dogs and security.

Finally, the financial woes in the euro-zone appear to have affected dog ownership. France, with a sagging economy and Greece, on the brink of economic cataclysm, have fewer dogs than 5 years ago.

Our bottom line: Chloe and Gus are much more than family dogs. Dog ownership can be an indicator of a country’s economic growth and decline.

Sources and Resources: My facts on dogs are primarily from the Atlantic article and from a marketplace.org report. You might also enjoy this Bloomberg article on a NJ legislative proposal for mandating doggy seat belts and Governor Christie’s response. Finally, these econlife links look at aspirational purchases in the developing world.

This chart is from the Atlantic article cited above.

Please note that this post’s conclusion was edited after it appeared.

Posted by: adminEcon
Tags: Brazil, developed nations, developing nations, Dog population, dogs per household, economic growth, emerging markets, euro zone, Euromonitor, France, Greece, large dogs, pet food industry, pomeranians, small dogs, urbanization
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11.08.2012 | Beer Economics

In China, 1/2 liter of beer costs 9 minutes of work.

To calculate how many minutes of work it takes to buy beer in 150 countries, Swiss bank UBS researchers divided the median wage in that country by the price of 1/2 liter from a retailer. Their results? Beer drinking is most costly for workers in India (55 min.), Philippines (48 min.), Colombia (47 min.) and Nigeria (29 min.). At the other end of the list is the US (5 min.), Czech Republic (7 min.), Germany (8 min.), the Netherlands (9 min), and China (9 min.)

The UBS report reminded me that national beer consumption relates to affluence. According to the American Association of Wine Economists (yes, really) the connection between beer and per capita income is an upside down “U.” As individual incomes increase up to $22,000, so too does beer consumption. Then though, when wine and spirits become affordable, people move from beer to pricier liquor. Currently, nations with emerging markets represent two-thirds of the world’s beer consumption. (The ascent of China’s beer drinking curve in the graph below is striking.)

So, when anyone mentions beer, we can think about of purchasing power, economic growth and demand from the developing world.

A Final Fact: Beer has also been in the news as a source of government revenue. President Hollande just said France’s beer tax will rise by 160% to fund programs for young people and the elderly. Meanwhile, 2 years ago, after Russia spiked its beer tax by 200%, beer purchases declined.

Sources and Resources: This BBC article on the impact of the impending French beer tax was a good read as was the Economist’s details on the UBS beer cost study. More academic, the AAWE paper was the source of my beer drinking information about developing nations. Please note that all information from UBS and The Economist is current while data and the graph from the AAWE is from 2010 and before.

World Beer Consumption, 1961-2007

Posted by: adminEcon
Tags: American Association of Wine Economists, beer consumption, beer taxes, China, developing nations, economic growth, emerging markets, France, India, per capita income, purchasing power, Russia, The Economist, UBS, US
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08.24.2012 | Some Greek Math

With a euro zone update on Greece unfolding (they might lease some islands but we’ll get to that in a moment), here is some Greek math that Michael Lewis presents in Boomerang.

Referring to the deficit, during October 2009, the Greek government thought it was 3.7% of GDP. A closer look from a new finance minister soon resulted in a revision to 14%. How could they have been so wrong (assuming the new figure is valid)? They actually had no independent group gathering statistics. Instead, the political party in charge managed the math.

The 2009 Greek deficit (spending minus revenue for one year) was close to 14% of GDP. The Greek debt (the total amount they owed) might have been 114% of GDP. Why could the Greeks borrow so much?

Comparing Greece’s GDP to its deficit is sort of like comparing your income to your mortgage and then having a wealthy uncle who would guarantee what you borrowed. After the Greeks joined the euro zone, their borrowing costs plunged because lenders assumed the Germans would be there to support the loans. Even though the German economy was much healthier than Greece’s, their governments could borrow at similar rates–and those rates were low. As a result, Greece could go on a borrowing spree and use the money to run unprofitable government businesses like the national railway, to pay generous pensions to retired government employees and to ignore nationwide tax evasion.

Now, Greece knows it has to cut the public payroll. A recent Bloomberg article tells us that they are using incentives to encourage retirement and also placing people on 75% pay if they receive a poor evaluation or disciplinary action. However, as one IMF official told Michael Lewis, “I’m all for reducing the number of public-sector employees. But how do you do that if you don’t know how many there are to start with?” (from Boomerang, p. 79).

And finally–why do the Germans and French care about Greek math? Here we have reality. German and French banks hold Greek debt.

For an excellent video from the St. Louis Fed on “The Greek Tragedy,” I recommend this YouTube video and all others from the series. And this Washington Post book review tells more about Michael Lewis’s financial disaster tourism in Boomerang.

Posted by: adminEcon
Tags: Angela Merkel, default, early retirement, eurozone, France, French banks, German banks, Germany, Greece, Michael Lewis, pensions, PIIGs, President Hollande, selling islands, sovereign debt, tax evasion
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