Impôts, charges sociales et compétitivité. Le CICE : un instrument mixte

This article investigates whether, despite CICE?s dual nature (both a tax credit and an indirect reduction of labour costs), it could improve the firms? competitiveness. Exploring firm data on employment, wage and export, we show that the impact of the CICE policy on employment should be more limited than previous (and similar) policies such as the reduction in social contributions on low-wages. Instead, the CICE would benefit to exporting firms relatively more. Besides, the evidence of a wage premium in the group of exporters shows that non-price competitiveness matters to firms? ability to export. This is especially true in the case of firms benefitting the most from the CICE policy. Additionally, our study suggests that the CICE can positively improve export performance through its effect on markups and non-price competitiveness. Finally, our descriptive results show that the CICE policy targets firms ?mostly in need?, i.e. with low margins, high financial and export constraints, and low export intensities.