Nicolas Véron

In French Business, Old Castes Die Hard

My column today in La Tribune is a review of Thomas Philippon's recent book, Le Capitalisme d'heritiers, and of Isabelle Ferreras' related research on labour relations in Belgian supermarket chains. According to Philippon, there is a profound link between the dismal state of employer-employee relations in French businesses, and their generally family-or-state-centered ownership structure and management legacy. I found his book highly stimulating, and would recommend its reading to anyone interested in contemporary France.

Download Tribune_070319_en.pdf to read the piece in English, and Download Tribune_070319.pdf to read it in French.

The French Presidential Debate: A War Too Late?

In today's column in La Tribune, I argue that the economic debate in the French presidential election campain is tainted by obsolete notions of the relationship between government and business. Nicolas Sarkozy boasts his skills at 'picking winners', and Segolene Royal's faith in "citizen-experts" has not yet been extended to the ultimate collective-wisdom-gathering mechanism, financial markets.

Download Tribune_070305_en.pdf to read the piece in English, and Download Tribune_070305.pdf as originally published in French.