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Many roads to flexibility. How large firms built autarchic regional production systems in France

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  • Hancké, Bob

Abstract

This paper discusses the adjustment of large firms in France, in particular how they regionalized their production structures in the 1980s. Throughout the "Golden Age," large firms had geographically reorganized their activities: strategic planning remained in Paris, while the actual production was decentralized into the provinces, primarily to address cost and labour conflict issues. When the large firms faced a profitability crisis in the 1980s, and the traditional state-financed way out of the problems was no longer available, they saw in these proto-regional production systems a chance to become more competitive. They relied on the decentralization policies of the governments in the 1980s, and used the second-order effects of the new policies as a means to modernise their own operations.

Suggested Citation

  • Hancké, Bob, 2003. "Many roads to flexibility. How large firms built autarchic regional production systems in France," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 513, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:513
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/513/
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General
    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General

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