L'utilisation des produits dérivés et les caractéristiques financières des entreprises : le cas français

This paper empirically tests the determinants of derivatives use using a sample of French nonfinancial firms- a relatively under investigated area in the risk management literature. It shows that several factors related to maximizing the firm's value significantly affect the decision to use derivatives. The evidence suggests that a firm’s leverage (financial distress costs proxy), the dividend yield and liquidity (the proxies for hedging substitutes) and the size are, for the French firms, important determinants of the decision to use derivatives.