The crisis of the so-called Golden Age regime has been paralleled since the late '60s of the twentieth century by and increasing importance of market exchanges as opposed to vertically integrated manufacturing activity, leading to major changes in the size structure of firms. These changes have generally taken the form of an employment shift towards low-scale firms, lower average size and higher number of manufacturing units. This book tries to explain on theoretical grounds the reasons for such important discontinuity.

The crisis of the so-called Golden Age regime has been paralleled since the late 1960s by an increasing importance of market exchanges as opposed to vertically integrated manufacturing activity, leading to major changes in the size structure of firms. These changes have generally taken the form of an employment shift towards low-scale firms, lower average size and a higher number of manufacturing units. This book tries to explain on theoretical grounds the reasons for such important discontinuity.