HEC in the press

Just like in 2017, the first round of the presidential elections in France gave the majority of votes to Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. This time, however, it might be harder for Emmanuel Macron to convince voters, some of them who were disappointed by his liberal policy, to elect him, noted the newspaper Wirtschaftswoche. Finance professor at HEC Paris Business Armin Steinbach thinks that "Macron will have to get more involved in social policy".

As WWD reports it, Jean-Paul Agon, chairman of L’Oréal, has been unanimously appointed chairman of the board of directors at HEC Paris Business School.

Handelsblatt reports that Marine Le Pen is rising in polls and could possibly be elected during France's next presidential elections. Tomasz Michalski, professor at HEC Paris Business School, explains that although Macron’s macroeconomic policy is convincing, the gap between urban and rural areas deepened during his term.

Although pay transparency may be considered as progressive measure, both pros and cons can be pointed out and have been listed by The Next Web. One of the pros have been highlighted by a research led by professor at HEC Paris Business School Tomasz Obloj. This study shows that salary transparency reduces the gender pay gap.

According to CNBC, France might well raise its retirement age, as it is part of Emmanuel Macron's program. Professor at HEC Paris Business School Tomasz Michalski deems it very probable too since the French President has a high probability to be reelected and get a majority in Parliament.

In an interview for HR Magazine, professor at HEC Paris Business School Tomasz Obloj unveils the findings of his latest study on pay transparency: while it decreases the gender pay gap up to 40%, it also diminishes the difference between high performers and low performers.

Find MBA wonders about the criteria which make the difference for an MBA application. Louise-Marie Fischer-Dallee, associate director of MBA admissions at HEC Paris Business School, explains that the school is looking for "excellence — well-rounded, high-achieving candidates, who have at least two years of professional experience and have shown career progression".

Wired reports that, for the first time, a proposal aiming at implementing pay transparency and enforcing measures for all types of workers in EU member states was presented by the EU Commission to the EU Parliament and Council in March. “Firms are also wary of wages getting compressed and losing their best talent to competitors without transparency,” notes professor at HEC Paris Business School Tomasz Obloj. But this fear does not reflect reality. On the contrary, professor Obloj showed in a study that pay transparency can be particularly beneficial when it comes to reducing the gender pay gap.

The German media Capital.de wonders if premium memberships on professional networking platforms such as LinkedIn are really worth it or not. The article draws on a research led by Andreas Lanz, professor at HEC Paris Business School, which underlines the fact that a premium membership pays off for users who are particularly active on the platform.

With the outbreak of war in Ukraine, many multinationals have announced that they would scale back, suspend operations or withdraw completely from Russia. However, The Financial Times points out that the execution of such promises is more complicated than expected. Among many issues, one of them is that suspended operations could be seized by the Russian state. Alberto Alemanno, law professor at HEC Paris, comments that companies are currently "paying a lot of lawyers to assess what they can do about it in terms of protecting their investment."