In France, the profit share shows sharp fluctuations over the period 1970-2000: a strong decrease from 1973 to 1982 followed by a sharp rise between 1982 and 1989 and an upward trend since 1989. These movements are similar to those in Germany and Japan. Conversely, the distribution of value added appears to be more stable in the United States and in the United Kingdom. The decrease and the recovery of the profit share between 1973 and the mid eighties is theoretically explained by a labour supply shock. The evolutions observed from the mid eighties to the end of the nineties may originate from a supplementary shock, namely a labour demand shock, an increase in real interest rates or a technological bias according to the existing work. However, these analyses rely on biased indicators. The upward trend of the profit share is an artificial evolution due to the method used to take the self-employees into account and the distribution of value added seems rather close to its initial level since the beginning of the nineties. This result makes the hypothesis of an additional shock in the mid eighties less plausible and strengthens the hypothesis of a long term stability of the distribution of value added. Furthermore, the long term stability hypothesis is reinforced by individual data estimations of production functions that reveal the empirical relevance of a Cobb-Douglas leading to a long term stability of the distribution of value added. (1) Since the distribution of value added reached its long term equilibrium level at the beginning of the seventies; (2) Since the distribution of value added reaches the same level at the beginning of the seventies and in the nineties; (3) Since the distribution of value added may be constant over the long term; the distribution of value added may reach its long term level since the beginning of the nineties and the fluctuations observed in the seventies and in the eighties may be explained by labour market and goods and services market rigidities.
