Maurice Lévy-Leboyer – författare

The modernisation of the French economy in the nineteenth century raises a difficult question for the historian. The country experienced definite advances but also a long period of stagnation that for a while threatened its competitiveness and capacity to expand. The alternation of advances and setbacks is sometimes attributed to the effects of long-run cycles or to political events. Although these factors play a significant role in this study, the objective is to examine whether the French performance followed a fundamental pattern at a macro-economic level and, specifically, whether it was determined by collective behaviour that made adaptation to the constraints of technical progress and international competition more difficult and slower. The work is divided into two complementary parts. The first is historical and reviews the stages of French growth and the main hypotheses that explain this development. The second uses econometric analysis to test the validity of the mechanisms proposed and, by modelling the economy, examines its evolving structure and dynamics with greater precision. The statistical series that form the basis of this study are collected in the appendix for easy reference.

This 1989 book is the sequel to Multinational Enterprise in Historical Perspective (1986), in which the same editorial team continues the historical exploration of a vital but often misconstrued commercial phenomenon. The contributory essays, each written by an authority in the field, raise further questions on the idea of the firm, on periodisation and on research and development, and examine the international financial operations of worldwide corporate business. With the aid of trans-industrial and transnational comparisons, the range of policies pursued by business and government is fully discussed. Above all, this discussion is extended to include the production of mass-consumer goods and the areas of China, Japan and Latin America. All the contributions are based on original historical research undertaken in national and private bank and business archives in Europe, the USA and Japan. In their critical assessments and interpretations the authors are also able to combine economic theory with history.