[Conference] The Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations in the French late capitalist political economy

The Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC), with more than 200 years the oldest and largest state financial institution in France and arguably in all of the EU is awkwardly ignored in the political economy literature. Be it in the literature  on the transformation of capitalism in France (Levy 2008), the financialization of public policies (Chiapello et al 2024) or the shareholding state (Coutant and Viallet-Thevenin 2021), the CDC is remarkable only by its absence or its marginal status. Meanwhile, existing research on the CDC remains fragmented. On the one hand, historical accounts focus on its role in housing and urban development policies in the 20th century (Foucault & Voldman 2008, Frétigny 2015). On the other hand, its contemporary role has been captured through case-studies on some of its subsidiaries, such as Bpifrance (Thiemann & Volberding 2021) or CDC Habitat (Carvalho 2025, Guironnet 2025). There is yet much to understand about the CDC in terms of its recent transformations, and its role in its entirety when it comes to the ongoing restructuring of French capital accumulation and statecraft.

A major tool of public policy, it has effectively shaped housing and urban policies for decades and has sustained the local efforts to revive entrepreneuriat and industry in regions beyond the Ile-de-France. Working closely with European bodies, like the European Investment Bank or the European Investment Fund, it has recently become a major pillar of industrial policy forged at the national and European level. Last but not least, it claims to be a major actor in the ecological transition through green bond issuance or biodiversity banking. And yet, we know little about what drives the changes in mandate and the execution of its tasks.

Where and how are profits distributed and who decides over the usage of these resources for the purposes of public policy? Given its specific governance structure, which makes it independent from the executive but overseen by the Parliament, how can we understand its relationship with public powers? How does this relationship structure its change in mandate and its presence on different levels of the French political economy (local, regional and national) and beyond? How deep is its engagement with novel financial practices, often described as “derisking” and would it be correct to describe it as a central agent in the reform process of public financial circuits? Which countertendencies do exist? Are there areas where the CDC refuses to comply with the agenda of the state?  This interdisciplinary study day brings together experts on the topic of the CDC to answer these and other questions.

Programme

8:45 am - Welcome Coffee

9:00 - Introduction - Antoine Guironnet & Matthias Thiemann (Sciences Po, CEE)
 

9:30 - 11:15  -  1. CDC group and the transformation of financing circuits
Discussant: Ulrike Lepont (Sciences Po, CEE, CNRS)

Raphaël Frétigny (CRJ, Univ. Réunion), "Ce que peut et fait la finance publique : la Caisse des dépôts et la ville depuis l’entre-deux-guerres"

Simon Allard, "La reconfiguration des circuits de financement de la Caisse des dépôts dans les années 1980 : une recomposition des rapports entre finance publique et finance privée en période de financiarisation de l'économie française"

Gabriel Kahan (University of Wisconsin-Madison, visiting CSO), “Dirigiste Deglobalization: Capital Controls and Ecological Planning in France”
 

11:30 - 13:00  -  2. Economic policy 
Discussant: Cyril Benoît (Sciences Po, CEE, CNRS)

Oscar Brunzell & Mathias Thiemann (Sciences Po, CEE), “Regaining control: the struggle by the French Treasury in the 21st century to transform CDC into a tool of state policy”

Jean Baptiste Devaux (Pacte, Grenoble INP-UGA), “Le crédit des promesses technologiques. Bpifrance et le financement des start-up et de l'innovation en région”

13:00 -14:00 - Lunch

14:00 - 15:30  -  3. Housing and urban development
Discussant: Patrick Le Galès (Sciences Po, CEE, CNRS) 

Edoardo Ferlazzo (IGPDE), "La Caisse des dépôts et le financement du crédit des collectivités locales françaises: socio-histoire d'une mise en marché contrariée"

Antoine Guironnet (Sciences Po, CEE), "La Caisse des Dépôts, moteur de la financiarisation de l’État ? La conversion à la gestion d’actifs immobiliers  comme nouvel instrument des politiques du logement abordable"

Camille Boulai, Adèle Jardin, "Le fonds Hémisphère : un circuit financiarisé pour l’hébergement d’urgence, construit autour de la CDC, géré par sa filiale Ampere Gestion"
 

15:45 - 17:45  -  4. Green transition and environmental protection 
Discussant: Cristina Penasco (Sciences Po, LIEPP)

Marie Piganiol (IRISSO, Univ. Paris-Dauphine), Pierre Alayrac (CSU, Univ. Paris 8), Jade Payan (Sciences Po, CSO), "Les promesses de la vertu écologique. Pourquoi la Caisse des Dépôts a financiarisé la forêt privée en France (1973-2025)"

Elsa Massoc (University St Gallen), “Beyond Green: How the Caisse des Dépôts Is Redrawing the Boundaries of Durable Investment”

Lise Cornilleau (Printemps, UVSQ), Sébastien Lecq, "Acheter des terres agricoles comme levier à la transition écologique ? Les foncières privées dans l'écosystème complexe des politiques foncières en France"

17:15 - 17:45 - Wrap-up: Antoine Guironnet & Matthias Thiemann (Sciences Po, CEE)
 

*co-organised by the key themes: Transformation of capitalism & The state as producer of public policies