ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book suggests that Germany and France have pursued different policies in facing the problems of oligopolistic market structures, rapid technological progress and consequent uncertainty, and the growing influence of the State in economic life, and have each achieved rapid economic growth in the 1950s. The economic experiences of the three countries show that the adoption of any method of economic management cannot be said to be necessary in order to bring about rapid growth, for France and Germany have each achieved it with distinctly different methods. It is in the case of monopolistic or oligopolistic industries that a really valid choice between a system based on targets and controls and a system based on market appears to emerge. There is a spectrum of methods whereby firms can be encouraged to comply with the objectives of economic policy or a national programme.
