Micro-business in France: specificity, role in the national economy, system of state support

Abstract

Micro-business functioning has a significant impact on the state of the economy and social sphere of any country. The French pattern is noteworthy because a country, that had been aiming at the development of large groups for a long time earlier, only in two decades managed to build a successful system of governmental support for micro-business that includes both specific and common measures for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study attempts to identify current development trends of the micro-business in France and also to analyse the effectiveness of the state support system provided for the activities of the considered category of the economic entities. Depending on the nature of the subject matter, the author used such methods and approaches of scientific knowledge as induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, system-structural, comparative and statistical analysis. The study analyses in detail the current development trends of the micro-business in France, including its sectorial and regional specifics, estimates the contribution of micro-enterprises to the economic and social development of the country and deeply examines the system of state support. Micro-enterprises take an important place in the French economy by providing one fifth of the employment in the country and the same share of value added. Meanwhile, micro-enterprises are quite weakly oriented towards export because their activities are targeted mainly at the local markets and concentrated in the services sector. Micro-enterprises contribute little to research and development (considering the percentage of total expenditure on research and development and the percentage of total employment in scientific research sector). However, micro-business remains an absolute leader in terms of research and development intensity by spending almost one third of its turnover on researches and considering the share of the direct financial assistance from the state in total expenditures on scientific researches. To date, a sufficiently effective system of public support to micro-business has been formed in France. Apart from providing financial assistance, the system includes substantial tax benefits and simplified taxation schemes, easy reporting system and simple procedures for filing tax return, facilitated social regime, simplification of major bureaucratic formalities and strong information support in all stages of functioning of an enterprise.