Christian Bessy is graduate from Ecole Normale Superieure de Cachan (France) and a laureate of the “Agrégation d’Economie et de Gestion” (1987). He has received a PHD in economics at the University of Paris-Panthéon-Sorbonne (1991). He is currently attached ‘Institutions and Dynamiques historiques de l’Economie et de la Société’ (IDHES, Paris-Saclay) as a CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) Director of research, and is a teacher at the ‘Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay’. Before 2005, he was Researcher at the Centre d’Études de l’Emploi (CEE, Paris) in which he has worked during several years and doing research financed by the French Ministry of Social Affairs, Work and Solidarity. Until 2004, he has been Associate Researcher at the ‘Center for Analytical Theory of Organizations and Markets’ (ATOM, University of Paris-Panthéon- Sorbonne) and Member of the scientific committee. He is specialised in institutional economics, law and economics, recruitment and labour market intermediaries, knowledge transfer and intellectual property rights. He has published a lot of books and articles on these subjects. He has been a visiting scholar at the Washington University of Saint Louis (Missouri) and invited professor at Lucerne University and Osaka University. He is currently the director of IDHES ENS Paris-Saclay and supervisor of the master “Economie, Organisation et Société” of Paris-Saclay University.
Selected Publications
Expropriation by law. Intellectual property, value and labor, London : Edward Elgar, 2024
With Claude Didry, « Law in Convention Theory: Regulation in Regularities », in Handbook of Econmics and Sociology of Conventions, Rainer Diaz-Bone and Guillemette de Larquier (eds), Springer, 2023.
The failure of a pure patent market, Accouting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, https://doi.org/10.1515/ael-2022-0079
With Cynthia Colmellere, « La valeur du faux », Annales HSS, 77(3), 2022.
« Addressing Moral Concerns Raised by the Market », Oeconomia, 11(2), 2021.
With M. Margairaz (Eds), Les biens communs en perspective, XVIIème-XXIème siècles, Edition de la Sorbonne, 2021.
With Bastard B., ‘The Reconfiguration of the French Legal Profession‘, in Comparing legal professions 30 years after “Lawyers in Society”, R. Abel, O. Hammerslev, H. Sommerlad, U. Schultz (eds), Hart Publishing, 2020.
« Un renouveau de la sociologie des prix et des marchés », L’Année sociologique, 70/1, e1-e18. https://www.cairn.info/article.php?ID_ARTICLE=ANSO_201_e0001, 2020.
« Economie des conventions et transformations du capitalisme, une analyse des effets du pouvoir de valorisation », Revue française de socio-économie, n°23, p. 79-97, 2019.
With F. Chateauraynaud, ‘The dynamics of authentication and counterfeits in markets’, Historical Social Research, Vol. 44-1, p. 136-159, 2019.
L’organisation des activités des avocats, entre monopole et marché, Paris, Lextenso éditions, collection forum, 2015.
“The dynamics of law and conventions”, Historical Social Research, 40-1: 62-76, 2015.
With P.M. Chauvin, ‘The power of Market Intermediaries: From Information to Valuation Processes’, Valuation Studies, 1(1): 83-117, 2013.
http://valuationstudies.liu.se/Issues/articles/default.asp?DOI=10.3384/vs.2001-5992.131183
‘Institutions and Conventions of quality’, Historical Social Research, 37-4: 15-23, 2012.
With T. Delpeuch, J. Pélisse (co editors), Droit et régulations des activités économiques, Paris, L.G.D.J., Lextenso Editions, 2011. 2nd Edition plus an afterword, 2022.
With Szpiro D., The Provisions in a Labour Contract: Technology and the Market’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol. 35, n°3, pp. 459-481, 2011.
With Brousseau E., ‘Public and Private Institutions in the Governance of Intellectual Property Rights’, in Intellectual Property Rights: Innovation, Governance and the Institutional Environment, B. Andersen ed., Londres, E. Elgar, 2006.
“Organisations intermédiaires et accords de licence de technologie », Revue d’Economie Industrielle, n° 115, 3ème trimestre 2006.
‘Labour Market flexibility and New Systems of Competence Certification: a Comparison of the UK, France and Germany’, in How Europe’s Economies Learn- Coordinating Competing Model, E. Lorenz and B. Lundvall eds., Oxford University Press, 2006.
“ Distributed Cognition and the Theory of the Firm: Enriching Nelson and Winter’s Evolutionary Analysis of Organisational Learning and Memory”, Economie Appliquée, n°4, 2003.
With O. Favereau, “ Institutions et Economie des Conventions ”, Cahiers d’Economie Politique, n° 44, pp 119-164, 2003.
“ Institutional Embeddedness of Economic Exchange, Convergence between New Institutional Economics and the Economics of Conventions”, in Conventions and Structures in Economic Organization, Favereau et Lazega eds., Londres, Edward Elgar, 2002.
– with Brousseau E., “Licensing of Technology: Various Contracts for Diverse Transactions”, International Review of Law and Economics, 18 : 451-489, 1998.
– with Eymard-Duvernay F. (co-editors) Les intermédiaires du marché du travail, PUF, 1997.
– with Chateauraynaud F., Experts et faussaires. Pour une sociologie de la perception, Paris, Métailié, 1995. 2nd Edition, Petra, 2014.
“The Problem of the Allocation of Jobloss, the French Case in a Comparative Perspective “, in Layoffs and Social Justice, F. Engelstad éd., Oslo, Institute for Social Research, 1994.