We survey the phenomenon of the growth of firms drawing on literature from economics, management and sociology. We begin with a review of empirical "stylised facts" before discussing theoretical contributions. Firm growth is characterized by a predominant stochastic element, making it difficult...

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an extended overview on the debate on the European firm, by articulating it against the backdrop of more traditional theories of the firm. The chapter also proposes a different interpretation of the issue by grafting the discussion into the...

Recent financial crises and scandals have focused attention on the system of governance and disclosure in a way many may never have imagined and few welcomed. Not only do reforms appear to be necessary to protect shareholders as well as other stakeholders, but also to develop a different...

The aim of this paper is to reconsider the link between vertical integration and disintegration which are traditionally opposed in the literature. The conception of integration and disintegration closely depends on the way we define the firm and its role. This paper focuses on human...

This paper is chapter 13 of a book forthcoming in January 2007 under the title Histoire du marché financier français au 19 ème siècle (a history of the French capital market in the 19th century). In this chapter, we discuss the changes in the supply of securities on the French capital market...

Public intervention in the banking sector takes three main forms: prudential regulation, especially with the Basel II ratio for adequacy of a bank's own funds for their exposure to risk ; insuring deposits, the goal of which is to ensure a minimum level of protection for depositors and savers in...

L'objectif de cet article est d'analyser l'impact de la structure du capital sur la profitabilité. Cet impact peut être expliqué par trois théories essentielles: la théorie du signal, l'influence de la fiscalité et la théorie de l'agence. Nous montrons, à partir d'un échantillon de 9136...

The objective of this article is to analyze the impact of capital structure on profitability. This impact can be explained by three essential theories: signaling theory, tax theory and the agency costs theory. From a sample of 9136 firms distributed on seven sectors taken over the period...

The main purpose of this study is to examine the validity of the static trade-off theory and the pecking order theory using a French panel data. Our empirical tests provide that we can not formally reject either of the two theories explaining financing behavior. However, they confirm the...

Previous analyses showed that product market deregulation often precedes labor market (LM) reforms. This paper introduces LM imperfections within an economic geography framework, the level of optimal LM regulation being based on each country's social preferences. Due to capital mobility, opening...