| Summary: | Fifty years ago, French intervention in the economy was widespread; Italy's less so. Since then, Italy's (fairly chaotic) intervention increased while France's (fairly orderly) intervention diminished. At the macroeconomic level French policies were more market conforming than Italy's, in which politicians and trade unionists often imposed populist solutions. Partly as a consequence, France's cyclical performance was clearly superior. At the microeconomic level, France's industrial policies and protectionist instincts, almost absent in Italy, had disappointing results. Over the longer run, however, policy choices probably made little difference to the two countries' evolution.
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