The new NYSE rules for corporate governance require the audit committee to discuss and review the firm's risk assessment and hedging strategies. They also put additional requirements for the composition and the financial knowledge of the directors sitting on the board and on the audit committee....

We examine the long run performance of M&A transactions in the property-liability insurance industry. We specifically investigate whether such transactions create value for the bidders' shareholders and assess how corporate governance mechanisms affect such performance. Our results show that M&A...

We develop a theoretical model in which debt and hedging decisions are made simultaneously, and test its predictions empirically. To address inefficiencies in current estimation methods for simultaneous equations with censored dependent variables, we build an original estimation technique based...

We investigate the determinants of the risk management decision for an original dataset of North American gold mining firms. We propose explanations based on the firm's financial characteristics, managerial risk aversion and internal corporate governance mechanisms. We develop a theoretical...

Using new data from 42 African countries, we investigate the effects of public and private credit registries on firms’ access to finance as well as the effect of public credit registries’ design on the severity of the financing constraint. Our results show that access to finance is on...

This paper describes how Africa’s wind energy markets have evolved over the years and the structural characteristics affecting the development of wind energy projects on the continent; providing what we believe is the first mapping of the continent’s wind energy market. Results from our...

Using new data from 42 African countries, we investigate the effects of public and private credit registries on firms’ access to finance as well as the effect of public credit registries’ design on the severity of the financing constraint. Our results show that access to finance is on...

Using a sample of US acquisitions in Africa over the last 2 decades, we assess the long term performance of international acquisitions in Africa, and the impact of firm and country level governance characteristics on reported performance. We show that acquirers do not benefit from these...

This paper discusses the potential role that SWFs could play in African economies, both as recipient countries and home countries. We use new hand collected data to document the landscape of African SWFs as well as SWFs interventions on the continent. Our analysis shows that African SWFs are...