ABSTRACT
The ways in which income from economic activity is distributed between agents such as firms, shareholders or households, and redistributed through taxes and social contributions, and the ways in which financial resources are allocated to investment in the economy, largely depended on the focal role of the state during the period from the end of the Second World war to the mid-1980s, primarily because of the inadequacies and limitations of the French private financial sector in establishing itself as a proper financial mechanism for the management of incomes and financial resources. However, the income distribution and financial management system which was developed during the Trente glorieuses subsequently changed radically, for reasons explored below.
