Bankruptcy: from moral order to economic efficiency.

The evolutions of the bankruptcy law seek to reach many aims: economic safety, firms' creation and expansion in a capitalist economy, protection of the interests of the agents involved in transactions that goes far beyond creditors and debtors, and prolongation of the activity of viable firms. This contribution examines the French insolvency law and its transformations since the 19th century from a historical and concrete point of view which makes it possible to put in perspective the modifications and the uses of the legal rules in an economic and institutional context. The underlying assumptions and the main results contradict the conclusions of the Law and Economics theory which insist on the weak economic efficiency and the low ability to protect creditors' interest of the bankruptcy law. We show that far from being only one means of selection thanks to which the market could be cleared of its failing agents, the bankruptcy law opens a non commercial space of resolution of the failures of market which, by releasing the actors of their former constraints, authorizes them to reinstate the business world

La PME objet frontière : une analyse en termes de cohérence entre l'organisation interne et le marché

Alors que les travaux autonomisant l'objet PME ont pris leur essor dans les années soixante poser de nouveau la question de la conception de la PME peut sembler trivial d'autant que cette catégorie fait désormais l'objet d'une définition européenne. Dans un contexte où normes et définitions se conjuguent pour créer des catégories et des systèmes de droits et devoirs afférents, il importe de disposer d'un contour précis de la PME. Celui-ci ne doit toutefois pas seulement répondre à une vision utilitariste qui conduirait à développer une vision circonstancielle de cette catégorie de firme, les aides et subventions ainsi que les autres outils et dispositifs les concernant conduisant à établir une ligne de partage entre les entités susceptibles d'en bénéficier, les vraies PME, et celles qui ne le sont pas, le reste du monde des entreprises. Au delà de ces clivages factuels, ce texte propose une vision catégorielle de la PME qui, après avoir mis en évidence les limites des définitions statistiques et juridiques, d'une part, et factuelles d'autre part (section 1) nous montrerons comment la prise en compte des processus de coordination à l'œuvre dans les entreprises peut déboucher sur une approche à la fois plus lisible pour l'observateur et plus efficace pour le décideur (section 2)

FONCTIONNEMENT ET IMPACT DU MECANISME DE COMPENSATION DES CHARGES DE SERVICE PUBLIC DE L'ÉLECTRICITÉ SUR L'OFFRE D'ÉNERGIE DANS LES ZONES NON-INTERCONNECTEES

Ce texte est à paraître in L. Vidal (Ed.) Droit de l'Energie et des Réseaux, Annales de l'InstitutAndré TUNC, Volume IX de la Bibliothèque de l'Institut André TUNC, Paris, LGDJ, 2005Depuis la loi du 10 février 2000 relative à la modernisation et au développement du service public de l'électricité, la France s'est dotée d'un mécanisme visant à compenser les surcoûts subis par EDF et d'autres distributeurs non nationalisés assumant une mission de service public en matière de production et distribution d'électricité. La CSPE payée par tous les clients, éligibles ou non, est destinée à financer certaines missions de service public imposées à EDF à l'origine des dépenses ou manques à gagner. Les surcoûts identifiés et les modes de compensation prévus soulèvent des questions relatives à l'acception de l'expression de service public, délicate à appréhender en raison même de son caractère polysémique. Le présent article vise à faire le point sur l'une des composante de la notion générale de service public puisqu'il traite de l'organisation, de l'évaluation et des conséquences économiques et environnementales de la mise en place d'un système de compensation des surcoûts liés à la production d'électricité dans les Zones non-interconnectées (ZNI). Après avoir présenté le fonctionnement du mécanisme de compensation et son origine, nous mesurerons son importance économique et mettrons en évidence ses effets économiques et environnementaux

Become Independent! The Paradoxical Constraints of France’s Auto-Entrepreneur Regime

The Law on Economic Modernization of 4 August 2008 introduced a new form of individual entrepreneur, the auto-entrepreneur, the goal being to enhance the competitiveness of the French economy by promoting the entrepreneurial spirit. This paper proposes to discuss the auto-entrepreneur model with reference to the fundamentals of the theory of the firm and the legal variants of the auto-entrepreneur. The argument will be structured around the criterion of independence, and its various interpretations, which will be used to put the auto-entrepreneur model to the test. Three forms of autonomy are given precedence: productive (Section 1), concerning the availability of sufficient financing and material to provide professional services; managerial (Section 2), which measures the ability to assume the risks inherent to business, regarding both interested and third parties; and financial (Section 3), or the chances of earning enough money to subsist upon. The result, underscored in the conclusion to this article, is that the auto-entrepreneur regime appears best adapted as a means of supplementing income from another, unrelated activity or in retirement, which is contrary to every approach to business and enterprise.auto-entrepreneur; theory of the firm; combining activities; employment contract; entrepreneurship

Problems of Evaluating Small Firms’ Quality as a Reason for Unfavourable Loan Conditions

The article substantiates the hypothesis that the profitability of small firms is above all determined by qualitative variables. In this respect a low standardization of goods and even more importantly, the high significance of governance structures play a crucial role rendering the quality of the firm’s human capital, the flexibility of its machinery but also externalities of business networks, an appropriate integration of the family into business affairs as examples of qualitative information which also bear a high degree of privacy. Whereas the literature suggests relational contracts as a way how qualitative and private information can be credibly conveyed to the lender, it is shown that even in the German housebank-dominated financial system borrower- lender relationships of the kind recommended by the literature are hardly to be found. Rather, German banks, too, respond to information gaps with unfavourable loan conditions. As an alternative specialized information intermediation is briefly discussed.Small firms financing, rationing, information

Bankruptcy law and practice in 19th century France

In this paper, we try to measure the impact of the changes in French bankruptcy law in the 19th century focusing on the behaviour of economic agents as users of bankruptcy law for the sake of finding the best solution to their economic problems. Debtors used bankruptcy law in order to minimize their debt level when facing difficulties in servicing it, but they had to convince their creditors and/or the courts of their good faith, and faced the adverse effects of bankruptcy on their reputation and on the smooth functioning of their business. Creditors used bankruptcy law in order to force their debtors to pay, if they could. Judges - who in the French system of specialized commercial courts were elected entrepreneurs - applied the law within a specific economic context (both a specific local context and at a specific moment in the business cycle) which could affect them. The first part of the paper presents the evolution of French bankruptcy law during the 19th century in its historical context. The second part briefly describes the theoretical model we use in order to understand the choices facing debtors and creditors in the face of financial distress. The last part proposes some major stylized facts concerning bankruptcies during that period (based on contemporary official statistics) and tries to understand their relationship with the legal evolution described before.bankruptcy law ; failure ; firm size ; law implementation ; legal origin ; merchant courts ; France ; 19th century

Legal versus economic explanations of the rise in bankruptcies in 19th century France

This paper aims at giving an explanation of the changes in the number of bankruptcies during the second part of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. We wonder in particular whether changes in bankruptcy law, which are substantial during the period, suffice to explain the rise in the proportion of bankrupted firms. We first describe the main features and changes of French insolvency law and show that they contradict the evolution observed at the aggregate level. We then show that existing statistics, which include a regional dimension, allow for a better test of the impact of legal changes. We show that some legal changes had a significant impact, but not all. We also observe that regional variations in bankruptcies are huge and do not correspond to French economic geography, but may rather be understood as a diffusion process from the Paris Court towards the provinces. The major differences among regions also suggest that, even in a civil law country, the letter the law is much less important than local practices.bankruptcy law, failure ; law implementation ; legal origin ; merchant courts ; France ; 19th century

Does the law alone explain the rise in bankruptcies in XIXth century France?

This paper is the first result of a project aiming at understanding the history of bankruptcy law from an empirical economic perspective. By contrast with some proponents of "law and economics" (e.g. La Porta & alii, 1998), we consider that the impact of bankruptcy law on national economic performance cannot be deducted a priori from a simple description of the law, but can only be measured examining actual court practices and economic agents' behaviour. First of all, we believe that an empirical assessment of bankruptcy must start with a better understanding of what determines the proportions of debtor-creditors relationships which end-up in court (contrasting with those settled outside the courts, see Klapper, 2001). This simple question, which is not usually discussed, is a precondition for any interpretation of aggregate bankruptcy statistics. In this paper, we try to measure the impact of the changes in French bankruptcy law in the XIXth century focusing on the behaviour of economic agents as users of bankruptcy law for the sake of finding the best solution to their economic problems. Debtors used bankruptcy law in order to minimize their debt level when facing difficulties in servicing it, but they had to convince their creditors and/or the courts of their good faith, and faced the adverse effects of bankruptcy on their reputation and on the smooth functioning of their business. Creditors used bankruptcy law in order to force their debtors to pay, if they could. We use a new and still incomplete database constructed using both the yearly official statistics produced by the judicial system from 1830 on, and individual bankruptcy files from the Paris commercial court (Tribunal de commerce) archives in order to measure actual practices. The first part of the paper presents the evolution of French bankruptcy law during the XIXth century in its historical context. The second part briefly describes the theoretical model we use in order to understand the choices facing debtors and creditors in the face of financial distress. The last part proposes some major stylized facts concerning bankruptcies during that period and tries to understand their relationship with the legal evolution described before.history ; business law ; bankruptcy ; credit ; small and medium businesses ; commercial courts ; financial distress ; private settlement ; France ; 19th century ; code de commerce

FONCTIONNEMENT ET IMPACT DU MECANISME DE COMPENSATION DES CHARGES DE SERVICE PUBLIC DE L'ÉLECTRICITÉ SUR L'OFFRE D'ÉNERGIE DANS LES ZONES NON-INTERCONNECTEES

Depuis la loi du 10 février 2000 relative à la modernisation et au développement du service public de l'électricité, la France s'est dotée d'un mécanisme visant à compenser les surcoûts subis par EDF et d'autres distributeurs non nationalisés assumant une mission de service public en matière de production et distribution d'électricité. La CSPE payée par tous les clients, éligibles ou non, est destinée à financer certaines missions de service public imposées à EDF à l'origine des dépenses ou manques à gagner. Les surcoûts identifiés et les modes de compensation prévus soulèvent des questions relatives à l'acception de l'expression de service public, délicate à appréhender en raison même de son caractère polysémique. Le présent article vise à faire le point sur l'une des composante de la notion générale de service public puisqu'il traite de l'organisation, de l'évaluation et des conséquences économiques et environnementales de la mise en place d'un système de compensation des surcoûts liés à la production d'électricité dans les Zones non-interconnectées (ZNI). Après avoir présenté le fonctionnement du mécanisme de compensation et son origine, nous mesurerons son importance économique et mettrons en évidence ses effets économiques et environnementaux.électricité, surcoûts, DOM, compensation