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Paper - US-EU : Convergence or Divergence ? (new version)

Once upon a time, there were national varieties of capitalism. There were a German (or Rhineland) model, a Gallic model, a Scandinavian model, a British model, etc.. Some of these models were more distant from the US model of a modern market economy and some were closer, but each was specific. As recently as a quarter of a century ago, the common belief in academic as well as business and policy communities was that these idiosyncrasies were here to stay.

This was a wrong hypothesis. Over the last 25 years a major change has taken place in Europe as a consequence of globalisation and European integration. References to a French or a German model of capitalism nowadays are generally made in a normative way, to blame procrastination or rearguard manoeuvres in coping with change.

However, significant differences remain in the social models. This persistence is sometimes taken as a basis to claim that the varieties of capitalism have survived the transformations induced by globalisation - that only the focus of differentiation has changed.

In this joint paper with Elie Cohen we discuss whether different forms of capitalism remain in an area of globalisation and whether the persistence of specific ‘social models’ form the basis of lasting differentiation. We examine also whether European integration has led to the emergence of a genuinely European type of market economy or to convergence on the US model.

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Documents liés

Cohen-Pisani EU-US PDF - 286.3 ko