Which EDHEC Vox articles were published in the 2nd quarter of 2023?
Climate finance, artificial intelligence, banking scandals, transfer of SMEs... in the last few weeks, EDHEC professors have taken a stand on (very) current social issues. Based on their recent research, these articles and interviews have been published on the platform dedicated to scientific dissemination, EDHEC Vox. Here is an overview.
Transform the company in depth by rethinking its business model*
April 7, 2023 - By Aziza Laguecir, EDHEC Professor and Sabrina Roszak, SKEMA Assistant Professor.
Fifteen years ago, the financial crisis was a reminder of the disastrous consequences of the obsession with short-term profit in large companies. In order to satisfy the demands of shareholders and attract new investors, executives and managers sometimes acted irresponsibly without considering the long-term consequences of their actions.... read the full article
Silicon Valley Bank’s insolvency highlights the risk of similar investors*
April 12, 2023 - By Co-Pierre Georg, EDHEC Associate Professor, Diane Pierret, University of Luxembourg Assistant Professor and Sascha Steffen, Frankfurt School of Finance Professor.
With the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in March 2023, the concentration risk in bank liabilities has come under scrutiny. Not only had SVB heavily invested in the tech sector, most of its deposits came from investors in the same industry as well. In fact, the bank's CEO and team repeatedly referred to themselves as “bankers to technology, start-up companies, and venture capital firms”... read the full article
4 questions to Arnaud Dufays on the role of social relations in the motivation to pursue higher education
April 13, 2023 - Interview with Arnaud Dufays, EDHEC Associate Professor.
Why were you interested in the link between university enrolment and the influence of friendship circles? Access to higher education is not equal. There are many factors that influence this access (parents' education, community, network of friends, ...). In this academic paper, Vincent Boucher (Univ. Laval), Antoine Dedewanou (Carleton Univ.) and I wanted to analyse the influence of a high school student's network of friends... read the full interview
How better information campaigns could improve access to education for the most disadvantaged*
April 19, 2023 - By Yenee Kim, EDHEC Assistant Professor, Malobi Mukherjee, James Cook University Senior Lecturer and Reetika Gupta, ESSEC Associate Professor.
Access to education is one of the key basic human rights and a stepping stone for economic growth, well-being, and sustainable development. Yet, 1 in 10 young adults in the world (out of approximately 1 billion global youth) lack basic reading, writing, and numeracy skills. Thus, it is not surprising education and poverty are strongly linked... read the full article
Tax optimisation: when the banking sector challenges the spirit of fiscal law*
April 27, 2023 - By Aziza Laguecir, EDHEC Professor and Mouna Hazgui, HEC Montréal Professor.
On March the 28, 2023, in Paris, the offices of five major banks – BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Natixis, HSBC and Exane (a subsidiary of BNP Paribas) – were raided as part of preliminary investigations opened in 2021 for suspected tax fraud and tax laundering. These investigations, ordered by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (Parquet National Financier), target dividend arbitrage practices widely used by banks: “CumCum” and “CumEx”... read the full article
Regulation of artificial intelligence: how exactly do you regulate a technology like this?*
April 27, 2023 - By Olga Kokshagina, EDHEC Associate Professor, Stan Karanasios, Queensland University Associate Professor and Pauline C. Reinecke, Hamburg University Research fellow.
In March, artificial intelligence pioneers and experts urged major AI labs to immediately pause the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 for at least six months. An open letter penned by the Future of Life Institute cautioned that AI systems with “human-competitive intelligence” could become a major threat to humanity. Among the risks, the possibility of AI outsmarting humans, rendering us obsolete, and taking control of civilisation... read the full article
Meet Guergana Guintcheva, a Professor who is the hero of her own story
May 9, 2023 - Portrait of Guergana Guintcheva, EDHEC Professor.
Her story often joins history: born in communist Bulgaria, she grew up in a society without brands, but not without dreams! On her side of the Iron Curtain, she nurtured a fascination for the Arts, French and French culture. A few undubbed films are shown on national television, notably those of Louis de Funès, an opportunity to follow them religiously and to try to appropriate the language... read this portrait
Climate regulation and financial risk: the challenge of policy uncertainty*
May 10, 2023 - By Irene Monasterolo, EDHEC Climate Finance Professor and EDHEC-Risk Institute programme Director, Tobias Berg, Goethe University Frankfurt Professor, Elena Carletti, Bocconi University Professor, Stijn Claessens, Bank for International Settlements Head of Financial Stability Policy, Monetary and Economic Department, Jan-Pieter Krahnen, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research Founding Director and Marco Pagano, University of Naples Federico II Professor.
Transitioning to a carbon-neutral economy requires structural changes. Fossil fuel-based energy needs to be replaced by renewable alternatives (e.g. wind and solar), and high-carbon activities such as heating need to be transformed (IEA 2021). Public debate and academic contributions have been focusing on ways to implement the low-carbon transition (NGFS 2019), on the financial costs of a late transition (Alogouskofis et al. 2021), and on the benefits of early action (Gourdel et al. 2022)... read the full article
Peter Szilagyi: “This scandal is yet another case of banks arbitraging weaknesses in regulation and oversight"
May 19, 2023 - Interview with Peter G. Szilagyi, EDHEC Professor.
16 judges, 150 investigators: the PNF has striken a blow in the cum-cum and cum-ex scandals. Were you surprised? I was surprised by the scale of the operation, it was the biggest bank raid ever in France. Otherwise it was really only a matter of time. Germany, where the scandal had broken in 2018, had also had raids and already made the first convictions... read the full interview
Does shareholder activism create value?*
June 5, 2023 - By Enrique Schroth, EDHEC Professor and PhD in Finance programme Director, Rui Albuquerque, Carroll School of Management Professor and Vyacheslav Fos, Carroll School of Management Professor.
Many public companies are now facing pressure from one or more activist investors, who acquire a minority stake in a company to influence its governance. Such form of engagement has gained strength steadily since the mid 90s, now constituting a major source of influence in corporate governance in the United States. Similarly, the total number of activist campaigns is currently breaking records in Europe... read the full article
How speculators are profiting from the banking turmoil*
June 20, 2023 - By Teodor Dyakov, EDHEC Associate Professor.
When a publicly traded company is in distress, speculators may aggressively bet on the decline of its stock value. The ongoing banking turmoil presents a case in point. Recently, there has been a pronounced downward pressure on regional banking stock in the USA. For example, The PacWest Bankcorp and Western Alliance Bancorporation saw sharp declines in the value of their equity during the last week of April and the first week of May.... read the full article
3 questions to Riccardo Rebonato on the Climate Risk Premium
June 20, 2023 - Interview with Riccardo Rebonato, EDHEC Professor and EDHEC-Risk Institute Scientific Director.
What Is a Risk Premium, and Why Is It Important? The return investors can expect to make from a financial asset depends both on the (discounted) expected cashflows that the asset will generate, and on a compensation for the riskiness of these assets. The important thing to understand is that this risk must be considered in the context not of the asset in isolation, but of the whole ‘market’ portfolio... read the full interview
4 questions to Rania Labaki about succession in European SMEs
June 26, 2023 - Interview with Rania Labaki, EDHEC Associate Professor and Family Business Chair Director.
Why was this 2-day event at the European Parliament important? The Business Days event gathered participants, from a variety of backgrounds, to listen to and participate in high-level panels, thematic roundtables, interactive interviews, and masterclass. I’m grateful to MEP Martina Dlabajova and MEP Morten Løkkegaard who invited me this year to share my views... read the full interview
* All articles marked with this asterisk were originally published on The Conversation or the VoxEU portal of the CEPR
