Skip to main content
About HEC About HEC
Summer School Summer School
Faculty & Research Faculty & Research
Master’s programs Master’s programs
Bachelor Programs Bachelor Programs
MBA Programs MBA Programs
PhD Program PhD Program
Executive Education Executive Education
HEC Online HEC Online
About HEC
Overview Overview
Who
We Are
Who
We Are
Egalité des chances Egalité des chances
HEC Talents HEC Talents
International International
Campus
Life
Campus
Life
Sustainability Sustainability
Diversity
& Inclusion
Diversity
& Inclusion
Stories Stories
The HEC
Foundation
The HEC
Foundation
Summer School
Youth Programs Youth Programs
Summer programs Summer programs
Online Programs Online Programs
Faculty & Research
Overview Overview
Faculty Directory Faculty Directory
Departments Departments
Centers Centers
Chairs Chairs
Grants Grants
Knowledge@HEC Knowledge@HEC
Master’s programs
Master in
Management
Master in
Management
Master's
Programs
Master's
Programs
Double Degree
Programs
Double Degree
Programs
Bachelor
Programs
Bachelor
Programs
Summer
Programs
Summer
Programs
Exchange
students
Exchange
students
Student
Life
Student
Life
Our
Difference
Our
Difference
Bachelor Programs
Overview Overview
Course content Course content
Admissions Admissions
Fees and Financing Fees and Financing
MBA Programs
MBA MBA
Executive MBA Executive MBA
TRIUM EMBA TRIUM EMBA
PhD Program
Overview Overview
HEC Difference HEC Difference
Program details Program details
Research areas Research areas
HEC Community HEC Community
Placement Placement
Job Market Job Market
Admissions Admissions
Financing Financing
Executive Education
Home Home
About us About us
Management topics Management topics
Open Programs Open Programs
Custom Programs Custom Programs
Events/News Events/News
Contacts Contacts
HEC Online
Overview Overview
Degree Program Degree Program
Executive certificates Executive certificates
MOOCs MOOCs
Summer Programs Summer Programs
Youth programs Youth programs
PhD Program

PhD Thesis Defence, Finance

Congratulations to Dr Victoria Slabik who succesfully defended her thesis on December 5th, 2018.

Topic: Essays in Empirical Corporate Finance

Supervisor: François Derrien, Professor of Finance, HEC Paris

Abstract: The first chapter studies how refinancing risk impacts product market performance. This  paper shows that refinancing risk impacts a firm’s product market performance. I find that firms with a large fraction of short-term debt (i.e., debt maturing within three years) exhibit significantly lower growth in sales and market share. The second chapter asks how horizontal M&As affect peer stock market evaluation. Horizontal M&A announcements induce negative average industry peer  revaluations in a large sample of public and private M&A transactions. The average peers’ revaluation is a strong predictor of future industry returns. The revaluation of peers also depends on the public status of the target (positive when the target is public and negative when the target is private) and varies systematically with proxies for overall market misvaluation. Our findings are consistent with the idea that investors incorporate new information about industry-wide misvaluation into the valuation of non-merging firms. The third chapter studies how labor laws affect payout policy. This paper shows that labor bargaining power affects both capital structure decisions and payout policy. I find that the adoption of the wrongful discharge law leads to an increase in dividends per share, dividend yield, and the dividend payout ratio whereas book leverage decreases.