Monetary and credit policy in France during the Trente Glorieuses, 1945-1973.

Summary The thesis studies the policy of the Banque de France from 1945 to the early 1970s, during the "Trente Glorieuses" period. While the image is often presented of a passive central bank acclimatizing to inflation and responding to the orders of fiscal policy, the exploitation of the Bank's archives as well as the use and construction of new data allows us to question this assumption and to show, on the contrary, how the action of the central bank on the French economy during the "Trente glorieuses" was decisive, both in maintaining an average inflation rate and avoiding financial crises, and in facilitating access to credit and thus favoring growth. To understand this action, it is necessary to see that the policy of the Banque de France was characterized by two distinctive features: it was deliberately not carried out by means of interest rates but was based on direct control of quantities, and secondly, monetary policy, credit policy and banking regulation were merged. This study of economic history combines several analytical tools. First, it offers an institutionalist approach to monetary policy, including the history of economic and political ideas and the history of practices. It then uses numerous econometric techniques, notably time series and panel techniques, to estimate the impact of these policies on the French economy. Finally, it proposes a theoretical model of a central bank practicing quantity rationing and maintaining a non-equilibrium interest rate.