A quiet revolution -- The conundrum of market reforms -- The politics of market ideas -- Strange bedfellows -- The market as a constraint -- The market as a norm -- The market as a space -- The market as a talisman -- The Janus-faced European Union

Competitiveness differentials are blamed for the instability of the Eurozone. Most of the analyses focus on labour costs or labour-market institutions. This paper explores an additional source of differentials in competitiveness: land and building prices. European countries, especially France,...