Paris West University Nanterre La Défense

About: Paris West University Nanterre La Défense is a education organization based out in Paris, France. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Finite element method. The organization has 895 authors who have published 1430 publications receiving 21712 citations.

International Similarities of Bank Lending Practices and Varieties of Insolvency Laws: a Comparative Analysis of France and Germany

Abstract: Economic theory conjectures complementarities between the ranking of creditors in formal insolvency proceedings and the use of collateral in bank loan contracts as well as the existence of relational compared to arm’s length lending. In this paper we seek evidence for these hypotheses taking France and Germany as examples which differ significantly concerning the ranking of in particular secured creditors. On closer scrutiny of empirical studies as well as statistical information we can neither confirm that a high priority for se-cured lenders explains an excessive use of collateral in bank loans nor that a priority for inside collateral promotes relational lending. Regarding relational lending we point to variables lying outside the insolvency law, like culture and history.

Regulation by Negotiation: the Private Benefit Bias

Abstract: This paper analyses the role of the managers' non-pecuniary private benefits in an incomplete contract approach to the regulation of utilities. Private benefits may take various forms: excessive job security, perks, overstaffing, feeling of power. The model describes the relationship between a government and the manager of a firm which produces a pure public good, under private or public ownership. The firm's production is characterized by its quantity and its flexibility, the latter corresponding to adaptability to changes in consumers' tastes or to new technologies. A larger output quantity entails larger private benefits to the manager, while increasing flexibility runs counter to the managers' private benefits. The manager decides upon non-verifiable investment in human and non-human capital so as to facilitate an increase in the output quantity (capacity investment) or to improve the firm's flexibility (investment in organizational adaptability). We compare the effects of the ownership regime on the manager's incentives to invest and on the aggregate welfare. The private firm under-invests in capacity and organizational flexibility. This is because the government holds up a part of the gains through ex post renegotiation of the initial (incomplete) contract. Our analysis also highlights a fundamental bias in the investment behavior of the state-owned firm: the manager of the public firm only invests in capacity (he may even invest more than under private ownership) but he never invests in organizational adaptability. The model shows that an increase in the government's bargaining power exacerbates the hold up problem when the firm is privately owned, but that this result may be reversed for capacity investment under public ownership. Finally, we show that the superiority of private or public ownership depends simultaneously on three factors: the respective bargaining power of the manager and of the government, the degree of specificity of investments and the relative weight of quantity and flexibility concerns in the social welfare.

Market Price Mechanisms and Stackelberg General Equilibria

Abstract: This paper considers Stackelberg competition in a general equilibrium framework with production. The working of market power and the confi…gurations of strategic interactions are complexi…ed by the presence of an active leader. Two market price mechanisms are here studied: one is associated with the Stackelberg-Walras equilibrium, the other is linked to the Stackelberg-Cournot equilibrium. In the context of an exchange economy with a production sector, several results are obtained about equilibria mergings and about welfare comparisons.

Naissance sur l'échafaud : ou la tragédie du début du XVIIe siècle

Abstract: La naissance du theâtre francais, et particulierement de la tragedie francaise, date des dernieres annees du XVIe siecle et des vingt premieres annees du XVIIe, au moment ou emerge ce qu’on peut appeler la « modernite ». Maintenant oublie, et recouvert par le mythe du classicisme francais, ce « theâtre de l’echafaud » s’apparente au theâtre elisabethain et a la comedia espagnole, aussi bien pour son esthetique generale que pour sa maniere de representer le sang, les crimes et les viols, par des actions spectaculaires. Les exemples d’Alexandre Hardy et de Nicolas-Chrestien des Croix, montrent ainsi que cette nouvelle tragedie entend mettre en scene des actions tragiques (sanglantes) en meme temps qu’elle pose a un nouveau public et dans de nouveaux lieux, des questions philosophiques, politiques et religieuses, soulevees par les faits sanglants du temps, par les troubles qui ont saisi la France et par les recentes horreurs des guerres de Religion dont le public a necessairement le souvenir. La loi, l’ordre, la nature humaine, la souverainete, la legitimite, le Salut, sont les grands sujets dont la scene s’empare. Ce faisant, elle oblige les spectateurs a les voir, a en etre saisis, mais aussi a les penser. Car si le theâtre veut interesser son public, il doit le faire d’une part grâce a la representation de transgressions et de contradictions en acte, d’autre part en placant l’assemblee des spectateurs face a des corps souffrants et dans une position ou chacun devient une sorte de juge : un juge impuissant mais implique. La naissance de la modernite et la naissance du theâtre moderne apparaissent donc simultanement en Europe et celebrent l’invention d’une nouvelle distance critique.

Les idées suicidaires chez les enfants de six ans : leur réalité et leur expression au test de Rorschach

Abstract: Resume L'evaluation des idees suicidaires chez des enfants de moins de sept ans pose des problemes theoriques et cliniques. La formation d'idees suicidaires semble necessiter la possession d'un concept exact de la mort ; par ailleurs, les indices suicidaires au test de Rorschach sont des reponses assez complexes. Les jeunes enfants peuvent-ils vraiment former des idees suicidaires et les exprimer au test de Rorschach ? L'observation de huit enfants suicidaires de moins de sept ans permet d'etablir que : 1) l'immaturite du concept de mort coexiste avec l'existence d'une intention de suicide et de representations precises d'un mode operatoire ; 2) l'ideation suicidaire des enfants de moins de sept ans s'exprime au test de Rorschach par un nombre eleve de reponses determinees par les valeurs achromatiques (C' > 5).