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Abstract
This article develops an interpretation of voluntary early action of firms in regard to potential collective risks affecting health and the environment. The paper explores what happened to agricultural GMOs industry in France since the early nineties. Empirical observations are interpreted on the basis of the model of proactive Management of contest ability, which explores the economic conditions under which an anticipated threat of social protest, although just potential, can discipline firm's behavior effectively. The situation of the GMO's producers in 2001 is interpreted as a result of partial and unsuccessful attempts to settle such a management of contestability.