Libéralisation des marchés laitiers et transformation des régimes de concurrence

• Main Author: Marie Dervillé
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Association Recherche & Régulation 2021-07-01
• Series: Revue de la Régulation
• Subjects: liberalization; dairy sector; collective action; institutions; European comparison
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/regulation/19850

We propose the concept of competition regime to apprehend the co-evolution of individual strategies and of collective and public regulations in a particular area of activity. Combining the historical institutionalism of J.R. Commons with the contributions of regulation theory and socio-economics, the competition regime defines the individual room for manoeuvre of operators (bundle of property rights) within the framework of informal (conception of control) and formal (governance structures) sectoral regulations and public regulations (rules of exchange). The results of empirical research conducted on the transformation of the French and German dairy sectors over the past 60 years show the central role played by collective action in stabilizing markets within the framework of both interventionist (effectiveness and extension of the regulatory framework) and liberal (structuring of sectoral orders) public policies. The regional differentiation of competition regimes emerges as an essential way to adapt to dairy market liberalization in Germany. The national sectoral lock-in in the French case limits regional possibilities for innovation and value creation and hinders the transition to a post-industrial competition regime.