Moralizing the Market: How Gaullist France Embraced the US Model of Securities Regulation

by Yves-Marie Péréon

Overview

A novel historical perspective on how stock markets influence each other internationally.

A nation usually overhauls its financial regulations after a stock market crash or the collapse of its banking system. In 1967, France did something rare. Out of pure political expediency, Gaullist leaders and senior civil servants seized the opportunity offered by an insider-trading case and established an independent commission to regulate the securities market: the Commission des Opérations de Bourse, or COB. Despite their staunch defense of national sovereignty, these reformers drew their inspiration from an American model, the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Highlighting the international sources for national reform, Yves-Marie Péréon’s Moralizing the Market explores the dynamics of policy transfer in securities regulation—a subject that has rarely been considered from a historical perspective. That regulation has been used to attract investors and foster market development challenges the view that the French government only attempted to develop the stock market as part of a global wave of deregulation in the 1980s. Indeed, the creation of the COB reveals a great deal about the exercise of power in modern democracies, the interaction between business and government, and the mechanisms of institutional innovation.

Moralizing the Market will appeal to professors and students of economic history, international relations, and political science, as well as business and finance historians, policy makers, and professionals.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421424859
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	03/01/2018
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Yves-Marie Péréon is an assistant professor of American history at the University of Rouen-Normandy. He is the author of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. A Minister on a Mission
2. "Thieves!"
3. The Paris Bourse in the 1960s: A Basket Case?
4. France Looks at America
5. Drafting the Ordonnance
6. Takeoff
7. The Red Flag over the "Temple of Gold"
8. In Search of Legitimacy
9. Mr. Chatenet Goes to Washington
10. Mission Accomplished?
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Karthik Ramanna

A fascinating account of the emergence of securities market regulation in France, this book introduces readers to many paradoxes, not least the critical influence of the US SEC in Gaullist government policy.

Christine Zumello

In this breakthrough history of the French Commission des Opérations de Bourse, modeled after the SEC, Yves-Marie Péréon addresses the role of regulators in moralizing the market and making it competitive. A lively account of the politics of Gaullist and rebellious France in the late 1960s. A must-read in the wake of the Great Recession.

Eric Monnet

An interesting and valuable contribution to the history of postwar financial markets in France.

From the Publisher

An interesting and valuable contribution to the history of postwar financial markets in France.
—Eric Monnet, Banque de France

In this breakthrough history of the French Commission des Opérations de Bourse, modeled after the SEC, Yves-Marie Péréon addresses the role of regulators in moralizing the market and making it competitive. A lively account of the politics of Gaullist and rebellious France in the late 1960s. A must-read in the wake of the Great Recession.
—Christine Zumello, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle

A fascinating account of the emergence of securities market regulation in France, this book introduces readers to many paradoxes, not least the critical influence of the US SEC in Gaullist government policy.
—Karthik Ramanna, University of Oxford