HEC Paris

About: HEC Paris is a education organization based out in Jouy-en-Josas, France. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Market liquidity & Entrepreneurship. The organization has 584 authors who have published 2756 publications receiving 104467 citations. The organization is also known as: Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales & HEC School of Management Paris.

A Derivation of Expected Utility Maximization in the Context of a Game

Abstract: A decision maker faces a decision problem, or a game against nature. For each probability distribution over the state of the world (nature's strategies), she has a weak order over her acts (pure strategies). We formulate conditions on these weak orders guaranteeing that they can be jointly represented by expected utility maximization with respect to an almost-unique state-dependent utility, that is, a matrix assigning real numbers to act-state pairs. As opposed to a utility function that is derived in another context, the utility matrix derived in the game will incorporate all psychological or sociological determinants of well-being that result from the very fact that the outcomes are obtained in a given game.

Achieving High Growth in Policy-Dependent Industries: Differences between Startups and Corporate-Backed Ventures

Abstract: This research examines which firms achieve high growth in policy-dependent industries. Using the European solar photovoltaic industry as our empirical setting, we investigate the impact of policy support on the growth of independent startups and corporate-backed ventures operating across countries with diverse policy conditions. We find that producers' growth is positively linked to policy generosity, and negatively linked to policy discontinuity. Moreover, corporate-backed ventures are less affected by policy generosity compared to entrepreneurial startups, and less impacted by policy discontinuity as well. Our results underline the importance of country- and firm-level differences in analyzing firms' response to regulatory policies, and point to the need for a better understanding of the unintended consequences of policies designed to support new industries.

Large shareholder diversification, corporate risk taking, and the benefits of changing to differential voting rights

Abstract: We show how the change to differential voting rights allows dominant shareholders to retain control even after selling substantial economic ownership in the firm and diversifying their wealth. This unbundling of cash flow and control rights leads to more dispersed economic ownership and a closer alignment of dominant and dispersed shareholder interests. When insiders sell sizeable amounts of their economic interests, firms increase capital expenditures, strengthen corporate focus, divest non-core operations, and generate superior industry-adjusted performance. The change to differential voting rights both fosters corporate control activity and creates higher takeover premiums that are paid equally to all shareholders.

Individual vs. couple behavior: an experimental investigation of risk preferences

Abstract: In this article, we elicit both individuals’ and couples’ preferences assuming prospect theory (PT) as a general theoretical framework for decision under risk. Our experimental method, based on certainty equivalents, allows to infer measurements of utility and probability weighting at the individual level and at the couple level. Our main results are twofold. First, risk attitude for couples is compatible with PT and incorporates deviations from expected utility similar to those found in individual decision making. Second, couples’ attitudes towards risk are found to be consistent with a mix of individual attitudes, women being more influent on couples’ preferences at low probability levels.

Performance of currency portfolios chosen by a Bayesian technique: 1967–1985

Abstract: This paper is about normative currency portfolio rules. It assumes logarithmic investors who maximize the expected utility from lognormal currency returns with and without short sales restrictions. A number of implementable portfolio diversification policies are tried out on a large body of data covering nine major currencies and eighteen years of weekly observations. In doing so, we present ways of dealing with the ‘estimation risk’ in an international context. The necessary mean and covariance inputs are provided by a Bayesian prior on the means and by sample means and covariance matrices, which are estimated from weekly sample data. While some policies do produce abnormal returns (over and beyond proper reward for risk), none does so in a statistically significant way. This means that the evidence does not allow one to conclude that market participants are improperly diversified. As a byproduct of this investigation, techniques are found which would allow portfolio managers to earn a proper reward for risk by following a purely mechanical procedure; such techniques may be valuable in a multi-country world where the aggregate portfolio of currencies and securities is unknown and is not supposed to be efficient.