Barbara Briers, Assistant Professor of Marketing at HEC, has co-authored an insightful article on donation behavior in the Journal of Economic Psychology entitled "Adding Exchange to Charity: A Reference Price Explanation" (January 2007). The article explores why people are more likely to make charitable donations when offered a gift or token in exchange. Briers' theory of anchor pricing suggests that people may have difficulties estimating a socially acceptable donation amount and therefore prefer opportunities that provide them with a reference or anchor price.

Associate Professor Nicole Stolowy has taught business law and taxation at HEC since 2005. Her recent article in the Journal of Business Law (January 2007), "Company-Related Offences in French Legislation", examines how the role of legislation is changing as a result of the increasing frequency of white collar crime in today's business world. Stolowy sees a trend emerging as criminal business law moves beyond its original repressive function and takes on a preventive role.

Prestigious honors for valued professors

David Thesmar, Associate Professor of Finance and Economics at HEC, has been named Young French Economist of the Year, 2007. The award, conferred by France's Circle of Economists in partnership with Le Monde Economie (the economic supplement of one of France's premier daily newspapers), recognizes the work of outstanding academics under the age of 40 who apply their expertise to ongoing public debates.

Professor Thesmar's most recent work, Le Grand méchant marché ('The Big Bad Market', written with Augustin Landier), challenges the ideological foundations behind historic French suspicion of free market economics, a work which is particularly pertinent since the election of reformist Nicolas Sarkozy to the French presidency.

In recognition of his expertise in accounting and financial reporting, Professor Hervé Stolowy was recently appointed to the Standards Advice Review Group (SARG) by the European Commission. The SARG will advise the Commission on the objectivity and neutrality of the opinions of the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG).

Professor Stolowy has authored or co-authored ten books, contributed chapters to seven others, and published some 65 articles in academic and applied journals. Corporate Financial Reporting, his widely used accounting text co-authored with Michel J. Lebas, has been updated and reissued in a second edition entitled Financial Accounting and Reporting. The new edition provides an introduction to financial accounting for business students who need a "user" rather than a "preparer" perspective in accounting. Based on international standards, the book helps students understand various accounting and financial reporting issues from a global point of view.