Coordination and restructuring in large French firms: the evolution of French industry in the 1980s

This paper discusses industrial and economic adjustment in France in the 1980s. Itargues that French industry followed a path of adjustment throughout the decade,which was fundamentally different from both the German-Japanese style organisedcapitalism, and the US-UK type of deregulated capitalism. The analysis attributesthis to the structure and integration of the French political, financial andadministrative élite. Combining historical institutional analysis and insights from thenew economics of organisation, the paper also elaborates elements of amethodological alternative to traditional neo-classical and institutionalist arguments.