Silicon and the State: French Innovation Policy in the Internet Age

(Paperback)

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Between 1998 and 2002, France implemented an array of policies designed to promote the commercialization of new economy technologies. These efforts have turned French innovation policy on its head. Efforts to promote the new economy have proved politically and socially contentious. Many French policymakers and public intellectuals fear that regulatory liberalization might threaten or undermine state sovereignty. Trumbull addresses these concerns in this text, describing France's new technology policy as both boldly new and familiarly French. He commends the French state for continuing to play a central role in shaping France's new economy, and argues that the reforms actually reinforce the role and autonomy of the French state. Acknowledging that the government's solutions have not been elegant, Trumbull asserts that they nonetheless offer a workable accommodation of French values to the requirements of competitiveness in the new economy sectors.

Reviews

"... aims to describe, in Trumbull's words, the 'revolution in innovation policy' achieved by France and the French government of the late 1990s.... Remains a precious resource for understanding the workings of the modern French economy and the historic interaction between the state and businesses." Pierre Briancon, France Magazine, 7/1/2004

Author Bio

Gunnar Trumbull is an associate professor in business management at the Harvard Business School.