Founded in March 2012, Rules for Growth Institute is an independent research laboratory with the ambition of fostering growth in France by enhancing the economic effectiveness of the law.
Because it is an important lever for growth, it is essential that the rule of law be constructed and interpreted in the light of its economic implications. However, in France, as in other continental European countries, there is an intellectual division between law and economics, which is detrimental to the quality of the norm. Numerous reforms to French law designed to promote the country’s economic development have proved inadequate, as they have been carried out without in-depth consideration of their economic impact.
Over the years, Rules for Growth Institute has succeeded in attracting some of the world’s leading economists and legal experts to its scientific committee, to support the work of its young scholars and the new generation of young European academics. Today, Rules for Growth Institute boasts a highly active network in the worlds of law, finance and business, both in France and internationally, enabling the institute to exchange and collaborate with the world’s leading researchers, and to make its voice heard by a wide variety of French and European institutions.
Rules for Growth Institute aims to promote the economic analysis of law, a multi-disciplinary approach to studying the economic impact of legal rules, in order to propose sustainable and effective reforms to French law. Rules for Growth Institute advocates major conceptual reforms in a wide range of areas (bankruptcy law, corporate law, antitrust law, labor law and taxation). These areas are essential to the spread of innovation, an essential vector of growth today, as our country stands at the technological frontier, after more than seventy years spent in an economic catch-up phase.
In the autumn of 2022, Olivier Gossner, Professor of Economics and Finance at Polytechnique, proposed that Rules for Growth Institute create a joint research chair with the Department of Economics, with the aim of assisting public decision-making. The chair is currently being launched and has received the support of Polytechnique’s management. This is a significant new step for Rules for Growth Institute.
For 11 years, Rules for Growth Institute has provided its expertise to our country’s leading elites and economic decision-makers as part of an ongoing dialogue. The actions and expertise of Rules for Growth Institute are now recognized, both within the public authorities and in the academic world, in France and abroad, thanks to numerous publications and interventions carried out since 2012. Since 2022, Rules for Growth Institute and Polytechnique’s economics department have been pooling their expertise to serve public decision-makers.
A country’s legal framework is closely linked to its culture and traditions. Improving its effectiveness requires a significant increase in research at national level. Past experience has shown that in the legal field, unlike others such as medicine or physics, it is illusory to hope that measures, however relevant, can be directly imported from abroad. Reforms can only germinate thanks to internal forces.
The Rules for Growth Institute is a non profit organization governed by the 1901 Law on Associations.