Fall Semester 2000 Prof. Herrick Chapman G46.1910, G57.1910

Fall Semester 2000 Prof. Herrick Chapman
G46.1910, G57.1910 and B50.2319 Tuesdays: 3:40-6:10
Office hours: Wednesdays 10-12 e-mail: [email protected]
THE FRENCH ECONOMY: PAST AND PRESENT
This course explores the historical development and contemporary dynamics of the French
economy. We begin with a survey of recent trends and then ask what kinds of historical inquiries might
help explain them. We then explore industrialization in nineteenth-century France, the economics of
empire, the rise of large-scale modern enterprises, and the impact of the two world wars and Great
Depression in the twentieth century. For the rest of the term we concentrate on the French economy
since 1945. After exploring how the French economy has evolved in relationship to the European
Community, we focus on several aspects of economic policy, including planning and industrial policy,
monetary policy and finance, employment policy and labor relations, regional decline and
development, agriculture, the welfare state, and issues of trade and globalization in a rapidly changing
international economy.
There are no prerequisites for the course, though students should be familiar with the basic concepts
and terminology commonly taught in introductory economics courses. Likewise, some familiarity with
the political history of twentieth-century France and of postwar Europe is essential. Be sure to ask the
professor about additional background reading if at any point in the course you feel it would help you.
Because this is a discussion course, its quality depends on everyone preparing the material and
participating in class. Three papers are required: two 5 to 7-page papers on the central themes
involved in the reading for two different weeks of the course, due in class when the reading will be
discussed, and a 15-page term paper on a topic worked out in discussion with the instructor and due on
Friday, December 15. Grading is as follows: class participation (20%), short papers (20% each), and
the final term paper (40%). Students will be asked to make brief presentations during the weeks when
their short papers are due.

The following books are available in paperback at the NYU campus bookstore:
Peter Hall, Governing the Economy: The Politics of State Intervention in Britain and France
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1986).
Andrew Moravcsik, The Choice for Europe: Social Purpose and State Power for Messina to
Maastricht (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998).
Vivien A. Schmidt, From State to Market? The Transformation of French Business and
Government (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
Class Schedule
Sept. 12 B Introduction
Sept. 19 B Current Trends in Historical Perspective
Stanley Hoffmann, “Look Back in Anger,” New York Review of Books, July 17, 1997.
“France Takes Off,” Newsweek (International), March 20, 1999.
Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE), L’économie française 2000
(Paris: La Découverte, 2000), articles by Françoise Milewski, Valérie Chauvin, Hervé
Péléraux, and Gael Dupont (chapters 1, 2, 3 and 7).
Sept. 26 B Industrialization and Empire
Required:
Tom Kemp, Economic Forces in French History (London: Dennis Dobson, 1971), chapters 8
and 9.
Rondo Cameron and Charles Freedman, "French Economic Growth: A Radical
Reconsideration," Social Science History (Winter 1983).

Jacques Marseille, “The Phases of French Colonial Imperialism,” Journal of Imperial and
Commonwealth History 13, 3 (1985).
Recommended:
Richard Roehl, "French Industrialization: A Long Run Reconsideration," Explorations in
Economic History (1976).
Tom Kemp, "Economic and Social Policy in France," in The Cambridge Economic History of
Europe Vol. 8: The Industrial Economies: The Development of Economic and Social Policies,
edited by Peter Mathias and Sidney Pollard (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989),
pp. 691-751.
Maurice Levy-Leboyer and Michel Lescure, "France," in Richard Sylla and Gianni Toniolo,
eds., Patterns of European Industrialization: The Nineteenth Century (London and New York:
Routledge, 1991), pp. 153-174.
Charles Kindleberger, Economic Growth in France and Britain, 1851-1950 (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1964).
Patrick O'Brien and Calgar Keyder, Economic Growth in France and Britain, 1780-1914: Two
Paths to the Twentieth Century (London: Allen and Unwin, 1978).
Maurice Levy-Leboyer and François Bourguignon, The French Economy in the Nineteenth
Century: An Essay in Econometric Analysis (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
Calgar Keyder, "State and Industry in France, 1756-1914," American Economic Review (May
1985).
Douglas A. Irwin, "Free Trade and Protection in Ninteenth-Century Britain and France
Revisited: A Comment on Nye," Journal of Economic History 53, no. 1 (March 1993): 146-
158.
John Vincent Nye, "The Myth of Free-Trade Britain and Fortress France: Tariffs and Trade in
the Nineteenth Century," Journal of Economic History (March 1991): 23-46.
Jean-Pierre Dormois, L'Economie francaise face a la concurrence britannique a la veille de
1914 (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1997).

Oct. 3 B The Rise of Dirigisme in the Twentieth Century
Required:
Richard Kuisel, Capitalism and the State in Modern France: Renovation and Economic
Management in the Twentieth Century (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982),
selected chapters.
Recommended:
Cecil O. Smith, "The Longest Run: Public Engineers and Planning in France," American
Historical Review 95, 3 (June 1990).
John F. Godfrey, Capitalism at War: Industrial Policy and Bureaucracy in France, 1914-1918
(New York: Berg, 1987).
Pierre Rosanvallon, "The Development of Keynesianism in France," in The Political Power of
Economic Ideas: Keynesianism Across Nations, edited by Peter A. Hall (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1989), 171-193.
"Table Ronde: Le Capitalisme et l'Etat," Bulletin de l'Institut d'histoire du temps présent 18
(December 1984).
Jean Bouvier and François Bloch-Lainé, La France restaurée, 1944-1954 (Paris: Fayard, 1986).
Alan Milward, The New Order and the French Economy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970).
Michel Margairaz, L'Etat, les finances et l'économie: histoire d'une conversion, 1932-1952
(Paris: Comité pour l'histoire économique et financière de la France, 1991).
Gérard Bossuat, La France, l'aide américaine et la construction européenne, 1944-1954 (Paris:
Comité pour l'histoire économique et financière de la France, 1992).
Hubert Bonin, Histoire economique de la IVe république (Paris: Economica, 1987).
Michel Margairaz, ed., Pierre Mendès France et l'économie (Paris: Editions Odile Jacob, 1989).

Oct. 10 B Structure and Strategy in Twentieth-Century Enterprise
Required:
David Landes, "French Business and the Businessman: A Social and Cultural Analysis,@ in
Edward Mead Earle, ed., Modern France: Problems of the Third and Fourth Republics
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951), pp. 334-353.
Maurice Lévy-Leboyer, "The Large Corporation in France," in Managerial Hierarchies:
Comparative Perspectives on the Rise of the Modern Industrial Enterprise, edited by Alfred D.
Chandler, Jr. and Herman Daems (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980).
Bruce Kogut, AEvolution of the Large Firm France in Comparative Perspective,@ Entreprises
et histoire 19 (1998): 113-151.
Recommended:
Youssef Cassis, "Divergence and Convergence in British and French Business in the Nineteenth
and Twentieth Centuries," and "Big Business in Britain and France, 1890-1990," in Youssel
Cassis, Francois Crouzet and Terry Gourvish, eds., Management and Businesss in Britain and
France: The Age of the Corporate Economy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), pp. 1-28 and
214-226.
Pierre-Cyrile Hautcoeur, “L’Autofinancement: théorie, questions de méthode et tentative de
cadrage macro-économique pour la France (1914-1990),” Entreprises et histoire 22 (October
1999): 55-77.
Patrick Fridenson, Histoire des usines Renault (Paris: Seuil, 1972).
Maurice Lévy-Leboyer, ed., Le Patronat de la seconde industrialisation (Paris: Editions
Ouvrières, 1979).
"Les Racines de l'entreprise," special issue of Revue française de gestion 70 (September-
October 1988).
Marc Meuleau, "From Inheritors to Managers: The Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales and
Business Firms," in Cassis, Crouzet, and Gouvish, pp. 128-146.