Abstract: The history of construction is as yet still largely unwritten in the countries of the West. This is even more the case in emerging and developing countries. Heterogeneity is an important factor: should accounts focus on the building and public works industry (known as BTP in France) or consider the entire sector? In France, construction is a major sector, supported by a small but varied oligopoly of groups of global scope, where the source of value lies in human capital (contractors, engineers, and laborers).
Keyword: construction sector, building and public works (BTP), construction leaders, value and competitiveness, contractors, engineers and laborers, tradition and modernity
