Firm Size and Economic Backwardness: A New Look at the French Industrialization Debate
利用1861-1865年法国纺织和面粉加工业的普查数据，挑战了传统观点认为小规模家族企业阻碍法国经济增长的看法，发现当时企业规模适应了经济技术条件，规模收益不变，扩大规模未必有益。
This article challenges the traditional view of French industry—that small, inefficient family firms retarded France's economic growth—by examining data for the French textile and flour milling industries taken from the industry census of 1861–1865. The evidence suggests that the average size of French firms suited the economic and technological conditions of the day. The industries studied exhibit constant returns to scale over a wide output range. France would not seem likely to have gained much from larger firms. This is consistent with revisionist contentions that French industry was as rational as that of other nations.