Trust, Power, Performance, and the Future of Economic Debate

Across this week’s press review (January 19-25), HEC’s footprint shows up in places where public debate is being shaped in real time: Europe’s geopolitical posture, what Crans-Montana reveals in terms of trust and the economy; the psychology of performance at work; and even prime-time economic programming.

In Les Echos column, Nobel-laureate Philippe Aghion and HEC Professor Yann Algan argue that “rules” can create the illusion of safety, but that economic performance ultimately hinges on something harder to legislate: trust. Drawing on their research, they cite results suggesting that differences in trust account for two-thirds of performance gaps, while rules explain about a quarter. They extend that lens to the pandemic, framing Covid as a “crisis of cooperation,” where the cost was not only epidemiological but also social - because trust conditions whether collective action works.

Recent related publication: Aghion, Algan, Cahuc & Shleifer, “Regulation and Distrust” (QJE, 2010).

In L’Express, Jean Monnet Chair Alberto Alemanno is quoted on how the EU could respond when Washington turns pressure into policy. The law professor argues that Europeans are asking national leaders to be “a bit more courageous,” and frames the (unprecedented) instrument discussed as less about immediate economic calibration than about sending “a clear message” meant to shift the balance of power between Europe and the United States. Alemanno also warns that the “worst mistake” would be to lower Europe’s guard, describing a U.S. tactical pattern that invites member states to air divergent views and exploits those divisions to weaken collective resistance.

Alberto Alemanno has just published Regulating the Unthinkable: Climate Interventions as a Test Case for Risk Governance , Cambridge University Press.

In Les Echos, Strategy professor Olivier Sibony is cited on the slippery territory between productive doubt and the “impostor syndrome.” The piece underlines how widely prevalence estimates vary, and Sibony’s point is precisely about that spectrum. There is, he says, “a vast range of nuances” between a person experiencing “healthy concern” when facing a new challenge and someone living in a persistent fear of being “found out,” even while doing the job well.

In L’Agefi, Finance professor Pascal Quiry (Education Track) pushes back on a headline “debt ratio” used by oil majors, warning that the metric can be distorted by accounting choices - especially when analysts compare groups reporting under different standards. His point is methodological: if you want to compare leverage across firms, you must first align what sits in “debt” and how it is valued—otherwise the ratio becomes an artefact of reporting conventions rather than a financial signal.

Reference publication: Quiry is also identified as a co-author of the Vernimmen corporate finance reference book. (English edition: Corporate Finance: Theory and Practice, Wiley)

Finally, on Noema, Hamilton Mann (lecturer at INSEAD and HEC Paris) signs an essay that starts with a simple, relatable shift  - searching for a lasagna recipe now yields a packaged “AI Overview” - and then pushes into a bigger worry: the web’s value loop breaks when answers are delivered “without a single user visit” to the creator’s site. Mann argues that, “without a framework of ‘Artificial Integrity,’” AI search platforms risk collapsing the information commons that made the web possible.

Hamilton Mann recently published Artificial Integrity: The Paths to Leading AI Toward a Human-Centered Future, Wiley.