It is also a weapon in global competition

This summer, the activity was less evil. Divine surprise of the return of growth in the second quarter, small rebound of consumer morale, energy Chinese stock market recovery... Not fill the space after the incredible events of the latter. The media nature with horror of the vacuum, two other themes are taxed on the summer French economic scene. First the carbon tax. Proposed in a report by Michel Rocard, who will remain in history as the man of tax modernity (it had introduced the CSG in 1990), it is currently in refining in the cellars of the Government. Then the bonus. Caused by the revelation in the columns of the daily newspaper "Liberation" of the billion euros provisioned by BNP Paribas in the first half of 2009 for the premiums of its traders, the controversy over these enormous wages led a presidential blood blow. Summoned to the Elysee Palace, the bankers were quietly accepted a package of additional constraints on the conditions for granting of the famous bonus.

News on carbon and the bonus announcement resulted in strong agreed reactions. There are those who see any new rule a good look, because it would be mending an economic, social, or moral deliquescent. For them, the rule is a crutch to the new time - even if, in their daily lives, they have hard to respect the hotchpotch of laws and regulations in which we live and to absolve unscrupulous broiled red bike or by paying the nanny to black. And there are those who fear any new rule, because it would impede the ability of initiative of individuals. For them, the rule is a wire to the leg that em - fishing to go to the future - even if they are often the first to claim a more powerful police, a firmer justice and new legislation whenever the public cash an emotional shock - drowning at the camping, falling elevator, etc.

It's time to go beyond. Because the rule is not only a standard that seems to fall from the sky. It is also a weapon in global competition. Michael Porter explained it very well. In his Magnum Opus, "The competitive advantage of nations", published in 1990, the Harvard Professor showed that the nation played a crucial role in the competitiveness of enterprises. Because, in what is the power of a firm, there is a range of local ingredients. Porter insisted on the ability of companies to work with the University and the research laboratories, such as in electronics in California or in the side of Sassuolo in Italy ceramics (these reflections are also intellectual substrate of the poles of competitiveness created by France in 2004). But he also emphasized the importance of standards, laws and regulations. When a country is the first to impose a rule which then broadcasts the rest of the world to its business, it gives them a competitive advantage because it imposes on its firms to adapt before others. The prohibition of the work of the children in the 19th century to the European market for the rights to pollute, the success or failure examples abound.

Rules, obviously the France has a glorious past. The Declaration of the rights of man of 1789 until invented VAT in 1954, she continued to invent times standards throughout the world. But alas was little pioneer on the companies. The carbon tax and bonuses are two opportunities. In the State, the new constraints on bonuses were unlikely to be exported to the rest of the world at the Summit of the G20 in Pittsburgh. All play after. New shocks will advance the ideas and therefore the French banks... either the France will be pleased by virtue but unfortunate business. For the carbon tax, the horizon is more blurred. But it is certain that the country pioneers environmental legislation constitute a decisive advantage. When he was Prime Minister, Alain Juppe had asked to measure government decisions in terms of their impact on employment. It would be even more important, including employment, to assess the competitive advantage of new laws. A perilous but salutary exercise.