Sociedade, Tecnologia e Inovação Empresarial - Presidente da ...

deeply transformed these activities of intermediation. In effect the deregulationof these sectors followed the one of the banking sector underrather similar external pressures, with the added feature that not onlya large share of these activities were highly regulated but also that theywere provided by public bodies (whatever their exact status). Privatizationin Europe thus took more time on average and went through alonger transition period. Telecommunication services gives a good exampleof both the length to privatize large, highly profitable, national publicmonopolies (as in France or in Germany) and the long period oftransition it takes for the new structure to adjust to market forces andongoing technological changes (as became obvious from the earliertransformation of the telecommunications sectors in the US and in theUK). It follows that by the end of the 90’s, operators and market regulationshave still a long way to go from the old regulatory context tothe one which is more likely to prevail in the future. Still the issuesare rather similar with the ones mentioned in the case of finance withthe same shift away from universal access, and the existence of discriminationsand barriers constituted by differences in know how andknowledge on the users side and the same «prudential» principle oftransparency (and privacy) on the rules and contents of the servicesprovided.Somehow this state of broad institutional change conditions in differentways the evolution of the various national systems of innovation,as outlined below. But the trends accompanied and favoured inthe last two decades by the institutional changes in labour markets andfinancial markets have also had a noticeable effect in terms of pricesand distribution. The achievement of a certain level of labour marketflexibility helped to get rid, at least partially of any basic wage inflationpressure. On the other side the reorganisation of financial marketsappears to have led to some structural inflation pressure of financialassets (of which the unprecedented steady growth of stock marketindices is undoubtedly also a sign). The figure may not be so clear cut.Some financial assets may experience clear downswings or falls (thereis of course no indexation of financial assets as in the case of wages)and wages of some professionals may enjoy long lastings upswings asLuc Soete2 9 9Europe and national technology policies…