In the first part of the thesis I focus on credit markets in developing countries, and describe the competitive interaction between Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). <p>Microfinance has recently attracted a lot of attention from investors, politicians, scholars and, most of all, people working on development. As a results, a huge number of MFIs are being created all over the world so that, as of today, practitioners reckon that about 100 millions of customers are being served. Remarkably, about 67% of them are women. <p><p>The reason of this extraordinary effort is that Microfinance is considered the most promising development tool currently available. This belief is based on two important features of Microfinance: (i) It promises to be financially viable (and in some cases even profitable) since poor people have proven to be reliable clients. As a result, Microfinance is potentially a zero-cost development tool. (ii) It hinges on the entrepreneurial abilities of the poor. It is designed to help the poor to help themselves, in their own home countries, by allowing them to use their skills, ideas and potentials. This should progressively make developing countries independent of rich ones' help. <p><p>The growth of Microfinance has been so fast that many issues and related research questions are still not answered. In my thesis I try to address one of them, that I believe particularly important: the increase of competition between MFIs. As economic theory predicts, competition can have dramatic consequences in terms of borrower welfare, profitability of the institutions and, therefore, on the attractiveness of the business for potential investors, donors and entrants. I use the tools of industrial organization and contract theory to understand these effects, measure them, and give some interesting policy advice. <p><p>In the first paper, I analyze the effects of entry of a new MFI in a previously monopolistic microcredit market. In order to catch the salient features of financial markets in developing countries, I use a model of asymmetric information and assume that institutions can offer only one type of contract. I consider different behavioral assumptions for the MFIs and study their influence on equilibrium predictions. The model allows showing that competition can lead to equilibria in which MFIs differentiate their contracts in order to screen borrowers. This process can, unfortunately, make the poor borrowers worse off. Interestingly, the screening process we describe creates a previously unexplored source of credit rationing. I also prove that the presence in the market of an altruistic MFI, reduces rationing and, via this channel, affects positively the competitor's profit.<p><p>In the second paper, I study the effects of competition in those markets in which, due to the absence of credit bureaus, small entrepreneurs can simultaneously borrow from more than one institution. As in the first paper, I analyze an oligopolistic microcredit market characterized by asymmetric information and institutions that can offer only one type of contract. The main contribution is to show that appropriate contract design can eliminate the ex-ante incentives for multiple borrowing. Moreover, when the market is still largely unserved and particularly risky, a screening strategy leading to con- <p>tract differentiation and credit rationing is unambiguously the most effective to avoid multiple borrowing. The result of this paper can also be read as important robustness checks of the findings of my first paper. <p><p>In the last part of the thesis, I depart from the analysis of developing countries to consider, more generally, the corporate governance of financial infrastructures. The efficient functioning of financial markets relies more and more on the presence of infrastructures providing services like clearing, settlement, messaging and many others. The last years have been characterized by interesting dynamics in the ownership regime of these service providers. Both mutualizations and de-mutualizations took place, together with entry and exit of different players. <p><p>Starting from this observation, in the last paper (with Joachim Keller), we analyze the effects of competitive interaction between differently owned financial providers. We mainly focus on the incentives to invest in safety enhancing measures and we describe the different equilibrium market configurations. We use a model in which agents need an input service for the financial market they operate in. They can decide whether to provide it them selves by forming a Cooperative or outsource it from a Third Party Provider. We prove that the co-existence of differently governed infrastructures leads to a significant reduction in the investment in safety. In most cases, monopolistic provision is preferable to competition. Moreover, the decision rule used within the Cooperative plays a central role in determining the optimal market configuration. <p><p>All in all, throughout my thesis, I use the tools of industrial organization and contract theory to model the competitive interaction of the different actors operating in financial markets. Understanding the dynamics typical of developing countries can help in gaining a deeper comprehension of the markets in richer countries, and vice-versa. I am convinced that analyzing the differences and the similarities of financial markets in different regions of the world can be of great importance for economic theorists, in that it provides a counterfactual for the assumptions and the results on which our predictions and policy advices are based.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Cette dissertation est constituée de trois chapitres distincts, qui visent à analyser empiriquement l'innovation financière dans des champs différents: la finance des ménages, la finance publique, et le secteur financier. Le premier chapitre, effectué en collaboration avec Claire Célérier, analyse la complexité croissante des produits financiers offerts aux investisseurs particuliers et suggère que cette complexité est utilisée par les banques pour réduire la pression concurentielle.Le deuxième chapitre, écrit avec Christophe Pérignon, porte sur les emprunts toxiques émis par les collectivités locales, et comment leur utilisation s'inscrit dans un système d'incitation politique. Le troisième chapitre étudie en quoi l'adoption d'un type d'obligations innovantes représentant un capital conditionnel, peut contribuer à solutionner le dilemne sur le levier bancaire / This dissertation is made of three distinct chapters that empirically investigate financial innovation in different fields: household finance, public finance and financial institutions. The first chapter presents a work joint with Claire Célérier,analyzing the growing complexity of retail structured products, and how bank use complexity to mitigate competitive pressure.The second chapter, joint with Christophe Pérignon, studies how local governments strategically use toxic loans according to their political incentives. The third chapter explores the effects of exercising contingent capital, and how these instruments can contribute to solving the bank leverage dilemna

Remittances (money sent home by migrants) to developing countries are estimated to have reached US$ 325 billion in 2010 (World Bank, 2011). These amounts reflect only officially recorded transfers, transferred through formal channels and calculated as the sum of three items of the Balance of Payments Statistics, namely: compensation of employees, workers’ remittances and migrants’ transfers (Salomone, 2006; Aggarwal et al. 2011). Unrecorded remittances could represent 50 to 100% of recorded flows (World Bank, 2006; Hagen-Zanker and Siegel, 2007).<p>Remittances are three times the size of official development assistance (ODA) and the second source of external funds after foreign direct investment (FDI) for developing countries. Given their weight in receiving countries’ economies and household livelihood in many developing countries (for instance, remittances flows represent more than 25% of Lesotho’ and Moldavia’s gross domestic product in 2008), there is increasing policy and research interest in remittances as development resource. Furthermore, unlike FDI and ODA, remittances have the particularity to be directly affected to families, even those in remote areas, where development funds don’t arrive (Shaw, 2006). The thesis addresses the relationship between microfinance and the impact remittances have on domestic investment in developing countries. <p>Like other sources of external finance, remittances allow the economy to invest in human and physical capital (health, education), which contribute to growth (Ziesemer, 2006; Acosta et al. 2008). However, as remittances may be either directly consumed (remittances allow households to smooth their consumption, see for instance Lucas and Stark, 1985 and Glytsos, 2005) or used to invest in physical and human capital, it appears that their impact on domestic investment is perceived to be low or limited, given the amount of money they represent each year. According to literature, this is due to the small share that is dedicated to the launch or the support of economic activities. Actually, the allocation between consumption and investment, which depends on various factors such as the level of dependence households have with remittances, the migrant gender, and the existence of a credit constraint, varies on average around 10-20% of remittances that are not directly consumed (Salomone, 2006; Sorensen, 2004; Orozco, 2004). In the thesis we focus on the share of remittances that is saved and wonder how to maximize its impact, whatever this share. We are interested in the role of microfinance institutions, as actors of the financial sector, on this issue. Actually, two recent contributions, Mundaca (2009), and Giuliano and Ruiz-Arranz (2009), stress the role of the development of the financial sector. More precisely, the thesis focuses on a set of questions or issues that may be important for the microfinance industry to consider when interested in remittances flows and the deposits they may generate. <p>Financial development is generally defined as “increasing efficiency of allocating financial resources and monitoring capital projects, through encouraging competition and increasing the importance of the financial system. In other words, the development is about structure, size and efficiency of a financial system” (Huang, 2006). A large line of research work provides evidence that development of a financial system is a key driver of economic growth. <p>King and Levine (1993) argue that greater financial development increases economic growth. Levine and Zervos (1993) shows that growth is related to stock market activity, among other variables. Levine (1999) finds a significant effect of determinants of financial intermediation on economic growth. Beck et al. (2004) find strong evidence in favor of the financial-services view which stresses that financial systems provide key financial services, crucial for firm creation, industrial expansion, and economic growth. Levine (1997), Levine et al. (2000), and Beck et al. (2000) also stress the impact of financial development on growth. There is also an empirical literature that argues that the expansion and the deepening of the financial system lead to higher investment (see for instance Rajan and Zingales, 1998; Demirgüç-Kunt and Macksimovic, 1998). <p>By providing financial services to people whom traditionally do not have access to financial institutions, microfinance institutions (MFIs) may contribute to increasing the size of the financial system in many developing countries. Actually, according to the CFSI’s 2011 report, the one thousand-plus MFIs that report to the Microfinance Information eXchange (MIX) have 88 million borrowers and 76 million savers. Total assets of these MFIs amount to US$ 60 billion (CFSI, 2011). <p>The quite recent literature on remittances, financial development and growth can be categorized under two main approaches (Brown et al. 2011). One approach explores the relationship between remittances and financial development, with a view to assessing their impact on the level of financial development in receiving countries. The underlying argument is that remittances potentially contribute to financial development through both demand- and supply- side effects: by increasing households’ demand for and use of banking services, and by increasing the availability of loanable funds to the financial sector. According to this approach which consider the direct relationship between remittances and financial development, remittances have an impact on both financial outreach and depth in receiving countries, respectively through the fostering of financial literacy among remittances receivers and through the increasing availability of funds (see for instance Gupta et al. 2009, Aggarwal et al. 2011, Brown et al. 2011). <p>The second approach examines the remittances – financial development relationship indirectly by investigating how the given level of financial development in a country affects the impact of remittances on growth. This growth-focused approach allows for interactions between remittances and financial development in estimating growth equations for remittances receiving countries. Within the set of studies related to this approach, two opposing positions have emerged. The first position hypothesizes that the greater availability of financial services helps channel remittances to better use, thus boosting their overall impact on growth. Remittances are seen as financial flows in search of good investment projects, and good financial institutions are needed to facilitate the channeling of remittances to such investments. In this sense, remittances and financial system are complements. This position is supported by Mundaca (2009) who find that financial intermediation increases the responsiveness of growth to remittances in Latin America and the Caribbean over the 1970-2002 period. Other few studies also argue that channeling remittances through the banking sector enhances their development impact (see for instance Hinojosa Ojeda, 2003 and Terry and Wilson, 2005). <p>The other position argues that remittances contribute to investment and growth by substituting for inefficiencies in credit and capital markets. Remittances provide an alternative source of funding for profitable investments by alleviating liquidity constraints. In this sense, remittances promote growth more in less financially developed countries by substituting for lack of credits from financial institutions. This hypothesis is supported by Giuliano and Ruiz-Arranz (2009) who argue that poor households use remittances to finance informal investment in poorly developed financial markets with liquidity constraints. In their study, they interact remittances with a measure of financial development in standard growth equations, for a sample of 73 countries over the 1975-2002 period. Ramirez and Sharma (2009) obtain similar results using data from 23 Latin American countries over the 1990-2005 period. <p>The thesis contributes to existing knowledge on this indirect, growth-focused approach. Given the two existing opposite views on remittances impact on investment and the level of financial intermediation (a high level of financial development implies a high level of financial intermediation), in the thesis we first analyze the relationship that links these variables. We then analyses questions related to microfinance institutions (MFIs), as financial intermediaries. <p>Our focus on microfinance is made from two different perspectives, leading to different research questions. First, from the demand or microfinance clients’ perspective, we question about the interest for them to have MFIs entering the money transfers market (through the money transfer facilities and/or financial products that may be directly linked to remittances). The underlying argument is that MFIs enter the remittances market by providing money transfer services because there is a need for such services (and for other financial services) from their (potential) clients who are remittances receivers and migrants. According to this point of view, MFIs can contribute to recycle remittances flows into the financial system by contributing to the financial inclusion of remittances receivers and migrants thanks to the supply of adapted financial products. The occurrence of this assumption can therefore be measured by considering the involvement of MFIs on the remittances market as a determinant of financial inclusion indicators. Second, from the supply or MFIs’ perspective, we question about the rationale for MFIs to enter the remittances market. Here, the underlying argument is that MFIs are interested in operating on the remittances market because working with migrants can potentially contributes to the improvement of their financial and social performances. According to this perspective, remittances market opportunities as well as MFIs’ characteristics will determine the offer of money transfer services by MFIs. This supply approach therefore leads to the consideration of money transfers activities in MFIs as depending on remittances market opportunities and institutional variables. <p>Therefore, our papers related to microfinance will be articulated around these two questions (interest for clients and rationale for MFIs to have MFIs operating on the money transfers industry) by focusing, as argued earlier, on the deposits resulting from remittances flows. <p>As a matter of facts, by studying the relationship between microfinance and remittances respectively through the demand and the supply perspective, we raise causality issues related to MFIs’ money transfer activities and their impacts on MFIs performances. Actually, MFIs’ characteristics such as the right to collect public savings, as a potential source of efficiency gains, may significantly determine the supply of a money transfer service (MFIs’ perspective), while a money transfer service may itself be the determinant of some MFIs’ performance indicators related to financial inclusion, such as the volume of deposits made by clients (demand approach). However, given currently existing data on MFIs’ involvement on the remittances market we cannot consider simultaneously both perspectives in order to implement causality treatment techniques. Actually, the indicator of MFIs’ involvement we will use in our regressions is time invariant, therefore we are not able to build instrumental variables for instance (such as lagged values of our variable of interest) to eliminate econometric issues in our regressions. Nevertheless, through these two approaches taken separately, we contribute to some extend to the knowledge by putting in perspective different issues at stake for the microfinance industry. <p>Before we tackle our research questions we have an introductory chapter related to remittances flows: what are their trends, determinants and characteristics? The chapter also includes the definition of money transfer activities that we will use in the thesis, as well as an overview of MFIs’ involvement on the money transfers market. <p>Then, our research framework is divided into 4 sub-questions. The first one, treated in Chapter 2, is about the relationship between our variables of interest. What is the impact of the financial sector development (FSD) on the remittances’ impact on investment? This chapter aims at stressing the relationship existing between financial intermediation and remittances’ impacts on investment, which motivated our focus on MFIs (as financial intermediaries between remittances and the formal economy) in the following chapters. We focus on two transaction costs that decline with FSD. The first is the “Cost of Bank Depositing”, henceforth CDEP, which measures the difficulties of savers, particularly the less well-off, of depositing their savings in the formal banking system. The second transaction cost is the “Cost of External Finance”, henceforth CEXF, which measures the marginal cost for the banking system of borrowing in global financial markets. This cost is notably associated with the robustness of the country’s financial sector. In a stylized model of the lendable funds market, we analyze how both these variables affect the marginal effect of remittances on investment. We test model’s propositions using country-level data on remittances, investment, and proxies for both CDEP and CEXF, on a sample of 100 developing countries. We perform empirical tests using both cross-section and panel-data with country fixed effects, over the period 1975-2004. The results demonstrate, theoretically and empirically, that remittances and ease of access to the banking sector act as complements to stimulate domestic investment, while remittances and external borrowing are substitutes. We find that remittances flows stimulate local investment, as a part of remittances indeed become banks’ deposits, which increases the availability of lendable funds, reduces the interest rate and stimulates investment. In terms of policy implication, results suggest that enhancing financial sector development is crucial as it allows remittances to better fuel domestic investment. This is even truer when the access to international funds is difficult or costly. Improving the financial inclusion of remittances receivers by developing domestic banks’ ability to collect their savings is then a straightforward recommendation to policymakers who want to improve remittances impact on investment. <p>The second question, developed in Chapter 3 is related to the demand perspective of the relationship between microfinance and remittances. We want to assess whether there is a need from remittances receivers for financial products that may be linked to remittances. We aboard this question by assessing whether the supply of MTA leads to higher volume of deposits mobilized by MFIs, meaning that MFIs actually contribute or succeed in turning remittances into deposits. Using an original database of 114 MFIs –operating in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), South Asia (SA), East Asia and the Pacific (EAP), and Africa–, we perform empirical tests to study whether MFIs are able to capture migrants’ savings thanks to their money transfer activity. We test the impact of money transfer activity on deposits, using the natural logarithm of deposits as explained variable. Our main result suggests that money transfer activity has a significant positive impact on savings collection. MFIs involved in the remittances market thus attract more savings than MFIs that are not involved in it, probably coming from migrants and remittances receivers who are in need of adapted financial services. This confirms the opportunity MFIs may represent as a tool or a channel to improve remittances impact on investment. In that sense, MFIs should then be encouraged to operate on the remittances market, and to design financial products dedicated to migrants and remittances receivers. <p>The third question, developed in Chapter 4, is related to the supply approach of the relationship between remittances and microfinance. More precisely, we try to identify factors that seem to explain the availability of such service in the scope of services provided by MFIs. In this chapter, we focus first on potential sources of efficiency gains linked to the money transfer activity as a rationale for diversification (i.e. the expansion of the offer). And second, using an original database of 435 MFIs –operating in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), South Asia (SA), East Asia and the Pacific (EAP), and Africa–, we perform empirical tests using cross-section over the year 2006, to identify which environmental and institutional parameters have an impact on the willingness of a MFI to provide a money transfer service. We test the impact of various variables that are related to one of the rationale for MFIs to enter the money transfer market, namely economies of scale and scope as a source of efficiency gains, on the probability to have a money transfer service provided by a given MFI. Our main result suggests that the size, as well as the fact that an MFI collects savings have a positive and significant impact on this probability, while the level of financial development negatively impact it. This confirms among other things that the ability to realize economies of scale through a potential increase of collected deposits may be a determinant of managers’ choice to diversify. Policies that contribute to reduce entry barriers in low financially developed countries should then, among other things, be encouraged to have MFIs fully playing their role of intermediaries between remittances and the (formal) economy. <p>The chapter 5 questions about the institutional consequences for MFIs to collect migrants’ savings. The aim of this chapter is to give an insight on the opportunity migrants’ money (including remittances) could represent for the microfinance industry as a source of stable medium- and long-term funds. It is therefore related to the supply approach and the motivation for MFIs to enter the remittances market by analyzing the impact of migrants’ deposits (which include remittances) on another potential source of efficiency gains, namely the internal capital market. Through a case study approach, this chapter is devoted to the analysis of funding risk in microfinance, comparing migrants’ and locals’ time deposits. Migrants’ time deposits are expected to be of longer term and more stable (in terms of early withdrawals) than locals’ deposits. This assumption had never been tested yet. Based on an original database of 7,828 deposit contracts issued between 2002 and 2008 by 12 village banks belonging to a major Malian rural microfinance network (PASECA-Kayes), we used the Cox proportional hazard model to identify the variables that have an impact on the probability to have early withdrawals, and the technique of re-sampling to calculate withdrawal rates and deposits at risk. Results from the Cox methodology suggest that the migration status is not a direct determinant for the probability to have an early withdrawal. However, this probability increases with the amount deposited and the term of the contract which are both higher for migrants compared to non-migrants. The re-sampling method results suggest that withdrawal rates are not the same for the two categories of depositors observed. We find higher withdrawal rate distributions for migrants than for locals. The value at risk is also higher on migrants’ deposits than on locals’ deposits. However, as migrants tend to deposit for longer term than locals, through the calculation of durations we have measured to which extend migrants’ deposits still have a positive impact on MFIs’ liabilities. It appears that migrants’ money has a marginal but positive impact on time deposits durations, either when considering early withdrawals, which impacts are very limited, except in 2007 (the worst year in terms of amount withdrawn early). As our results show that MFIs that receive migrants’ deposits are not necessarily better-off than without migrants’ money in terms of funding risk - and durations - this paper has stressed the importance of assessing more carefully the role of migrants for the microfinance industry. <p><p><p><p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Le risque systémique a joué un rôle clé dans la propagation de la dernière crise financière mondiale.Un grand nombre de mesures de ce risque ont été développées pour évaluer la contribution d’une institutionfinancière au risque de l’ensemble du système. Toutefois, de nombreuses questions concernantles capacités de ces mesures à identifier les institutions financières d’importance systémique (SIFIs) ontété soulevées puisque le risque systémique possède de multiples facettes et certaines d’entre elles sontdifficiles identifier, telles que les similitudes entre institutions financières.L’objectif général de cette thèse en finance est donc (i) de proposer une solution empirique pour identifierles SIFIs au niveau nationale, (ii) de comparer théoriquement et empiriquement différentes mesures durisque systémique et (iii) de mesurer les changements d’expositions au risque des banques.Tout d’abord, le chapitre 1 propose un ajustement de trois mesures de risque systémique basées sur desdonnées de marchés et conçues dans un cadre international, afin d’identifier les SIFIs au niveau national.Ensuite, le chapitre 2 introduit un modèle commun dans lequel plusieurs mesures du risque systémiquesont exprimées et comparées. Il y est théoriquement établi que ces mesures de risque systémique peuventêtre exprimées en fonction de mesures traditionnelles de risque. L’application empirique confirme cesrésultats et montre que ces mesures ne sont pas capables de saisir la nature multidimensionnelle durisque systémique. Enfin, le chapitre 3 présente la méthodologie appelée Factor Implied Risk Exposures(FIRE) permettant de décomposer une variation de la mesure de risque d’une banque en deux éléments,le premier représentant la volatilité de marché et le second correspondant à l’exposition au risque de labanque. Ce chapitre illustre empiriquement que les changements d’expositions au risque sont corréléspositivement entre les banques, ce qui est cohérent avec le fait que les banques présentent des similitudesdans leurs prises de positions sur le marché. / Systemic risk has played a key role in the propagation of the last global financial crisis. A large number ofsystemic risk measures have been developed to quantify the contribution of a financial institution to thesystem-wide risk. However, numerous questions about their abilities to identify Systemically ImportantFinancial Institutions (SIFIs) have been raised since systemic risk has multiple facets, and some of themare difficult to gauge, such as the commonalities across financial institutions.The main goal of this dissertation in finance is thus (i) to propose an empirical solution to identifydomestic SIFIs, (ii) to compare theoretically and empirically different systemic risk measures, and (iii)to measure changes in banks’ risk exposures.First, chapter 1 offers an adjustment of three market-based systemic risk measures, designed in a globalframework, to identify domestic SIFIs. Second, chapter 2 introduces a common framework in whichseveral systemic risk measures are expressed and compared. It is theoretically shown that those systemicrisk measures can be expressed as function of traditional risk measures. The empirical application confirmsthese findings and shows that these measures fall short in capturing the multifaceted nature of systemicrisk. Third, chapter 3 proposes the Factor Implied Risk Exposures (FIRE) methodology which breaksdown a change in risk disclosure into a market volatility component and a bank-specific risk exposurecomponent. This chapter empirically illustrates that changes in risk exposures are positively correlatedacross banks, which is consistent with banks exhibiting commonality in trading.

La position actuellement dominante parmi juristes et théoriciens de la Finance Islamique penchant vers l’interdiction des produits dérivés dans les Institutions Financières Islamiques, la recherche d’une alternative à ces produits, en particulier pour la gestion des risques de marché, constitue l’un des axes de recherche fondamentaux concernant l’avenir de cette école de pensée et de ce type d’institutions. Ainsi, ce travail de thèse s’intéresse d’abord à l’inférence des significations financières contemporaines possibles du concept islamique dit de « Gharar interdit » (litt. « risque interdit ») en l’opposant notamment à la prise de risque permise, puis, à partir des résultats correspondants, à l’exploration et proposition d’instruments alternatifs aux dérivés. Sur le premier aspect, cette recherche est partie du patrimoine du Fiqh (« jurisprudence ») islamique, et a mobilisé des outils qualitatifs et numériques d’analyse, tout en s’inspirant de la méthode de l’idéaltype de Max Weber. Sur le second, elle a mis en oeuvre une enquête combinant littérature et terrain, avant de faire passer les instruments obtenus par un filtre construit à partir des résultats du premier aspect. Ce travail a principalement permis de jeter une lumière nouvelle sur les théories de la prise de risque et du Gharar en Islam, de repérer et de discuter les zones d’ombre à l’origine des débats contemporains, de dresser un état des lieux de la recherche d’alternatives, d’identifier et de comprendre un phénomène nommé trappe à réplication, et surtout, de proposer une voie générale de sortie, utilisant la théorie islamique du besoin et de l’intérêt général, l’idée de partage du risque et celle d’alternative. / The currently prevailing position among Islamic Finance’s jurists and theorists being to prohibit derivative products in Islamic Financial Institutions, the search for an “Islamic” alternative to these products, in particular for market risks’ management, constitutes one of the fundamental axes of research concerning the future of this school and type of institutions. Thus, this doctoral work deals with the inference of the possible contemporary meanings of the Islamic concept called “prohibited Gharar” (litt. “prohibited risk”) while opposing it to the permissible risk-taking, then, based on the corresponding findings, it deals with the exploration and proposal of alternative instruments to derivatives. On the first aspect, this research used texts of Islamic Fiqh (“jurisprudence”), and mobilised qualitative and numerical tools of analysis, while drawing on Max Weber’s method of the idealtype. On the second, it implemented a survey combining literature and field study, before passing the obtained instruments through a filter constructed from the results of the first aspect. This work has mainly contributed to shed a new light on the theories of risk-taking and Gharar in Islam, to identify and discuss the shadow areas behind contemporary debates, to draw up an inventory of research on alternatives, to identify and understand a phenomenon called replication trap, and especially, to propose a general way out, using the Islamic theory of need and public interest, the idea of risk-sharing and that of alternative.

Lorsque l’Etat décide de l’exploration ou de l’exploitation de ses réserves d’hydrocarbures, il n’est soumis à aucune règle internationale quant aux modalités de mise en œuvre de cette décision. Cette absence d’obligations n’a pas empêché les Etats développer, au niveau national, des règles réduisant leur liberté quant à la sélection des opérateurs. Aux négociations secrètes qui ont longtemps prévalu dans le secteur pétrolier, se sont alors substituées des procédures de mise en concurrence ouvertes s’appuyant sur des critères objectifs. Ayant pour but d’attirer l’investissement étranger et de faciliter la conclusion des contrats, elles se sont progressivement généralisées et standardisées, tant dans leur formalisme que dans leurs conditions. On constate alors un processus d’uniformisation globale des conditions d’accès aux réserves, auquel les institutions financières internationales ont directement ou indirectement pris part. L’un des aspects cruciaux des procédures d’attribution des droits a trait au rôle de l’entreprise pétrolière nationale. Celle-ci dispose souvent d’un traitement préférentiel. Dans de nombreux Etats, elle a en outre été traditionnellement chargée de l’octroi des contrats, combinant ainsi des fonctions qui lui ont permis de devenir un acteur incontournable du secteur. La standardisation de ses attributions a également fait l’objet d’un processus de convergence internationale, qui modifie le rapport entre l’Etat et l’investisseur étranger. / When the State decides to undertake the exploration or exploitation of its hydrocarbons reserves, it is not subject to any international obligation concerning the implementations of such decision. This lack of obligations has not prevented states from developing rules at the national level to reduce their freedom in the selection of operators. The secret negotiations that have long prevailed in the petroleum sector have been replaced by more transparent and open competition procedures, backed by objective criteria. With the objective of attracting foreign investment and facilitating the process of conclusion of contracts, those procedures have been progressively generalized and standardized, both in their formalism and in their terms. We consequently observe a global standardization process of the terms of access to reserves, in which international financial institutions have been directly or indirectly involved.One of the essential aspects of the procedure of rights allocation relates to the role of the national oil company. It enjoys preferential treatment, which has implications on the modalities of participation of foreign firms. Furthermore, in several states, the national oil company has been responsible for granting petroleum contracts, thereby combining functions that render it a key actor in the sector. The standardization of its attributions has also undergone a process of international convergence, which alters the relation between the State and the foreign investor.

Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Cette thèse est constituée de trois essais sur les activités de fusions-acquisitions (F&A) des banques et leurs effets sur la stabilité du secteur bancaire. Le premier essai analyse l’intensité de l’activité F&A des grandes banques Européennes au cours d'une période vaste de 1990-2006 et les liens avec les mesures de sauvetages et les notations de crédit pendant la crise financière de 2007-2009. Trois résultats importants sont mis en évidence à partir de notre étude. En premier lieu, l'intensité de l'activité F&A est liée positivement à la probabilité de sauvetage pendant la crise financière. En second lieu, cette intensité des activités de F&A est liée à la détérioration des notations des émetteurs, suggérant ainsi un risque de défaut plus élevé des banques acquéreuses pendant la période de crise. Enfin, on constate un lien positif entre les mesures de protection gouvernementales et l'effet combiné des activités de F&A et du facteur « too big to fail ». Ceci laisse penser que les banques peuvent poursuive leurs activités de F&A pour exploiter des avantages de protection liés à leur statut de « too big to fail ». Le second essai analyse la relation entre les activités de F&A de grandes banques Européennes et leur vulnérabilité à la crise financière en utilisant l’indicateur DD de Merton (1974) et le ratio de Z-score comme mesures de risque de faillite et de solvabilité. Les résultats mettent en évidence que les stratégies d’acquisition de banques d'investissements sur une période de 1990-2006 sont liées significativement à l'augmentation en leur risque de défaut (mesuré par DD) et l'insolvabilité (mesuré par le Z-score) pendant la crise financière récente. Le troisième et dernier essai s’intéresse aux relations entre les opérations de F&A et les évolutions de la déréglementation bancaire et des réformes de régulation bancaire mises en place aux Etats-Unis. Nous analysons principalement les effets de deux actes de déréglementation significatifs des années 1990 qui ont permis aux banques américaines de s’étendre à travers les états (acte de Riegle-Neal de 1994 et acte de Gramm-Leach-Bliley de 1999). Nous comparons les activités de F&A des banques américaines avec comme groupe de contrôle les banques européennes sur la période 1990-2009. Nous constatons un effet significativement positif de la déréglementation sur les activités de F&A dans le secteur bancaire américain. Cependant, on peut remarquer que les effets constatés ne sont pas forcément les effets souhaités ou visés par les deux actes de déréglementation. De plus, nous montrons que l'intensité des activités de F&A et la déréglementation provoquent conjointement un effet négatif sur la stabilité du secteur bancaire américain, justifiant ainsi le lien souvent établi entre la concentration du système bancaire et sa fragilité. / This dissertation consists of three essays on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity of banks and various dimensions of their stability. The first essay delves upon whether and how acquisitiveness of large European banks over an extensive period of 1990-2006 relate to their bailouts and credit ratings during the financial crisis of 2007-2009. Three important findings emerge from the performed analysis. First, the intensity of bank M&A activity positively relates to the likelihood and extent of their bailout support during the financial crisis. Second, the ex-ante acquisitiveness of banks relates in a significantly positive manner with the deterioration in bank issuer ratings – suggesting towards higher default risk of acquisitive banks during the crisis period. Third, a positive link between the external support and the joint effect of M&A activity and “too big to fail” factor substantiates that banks may pursue M&A activity to exploit safety net benefits associated with “too big to fail” status in the market. The second chapter analyzes the relation between M&A activity of large European banks and their vulnerability to the financial crisis using Merton (1974) based distance to default (DD) and the Z-score ratio as a measure of bankruptcy risk and solvency. The results suggest that a greater focus of samples banks towards acquiring investment banking operations over a time span of 1990-2006 significantly relates to the increase in their risk default (measured by DD) and insolvency (measured by Z-score) during the recent financial crisis. Moreover, relatively limited evidence indicates towards the positive stability effects of the acquisitions performed in the retail banking segment of industry by the sample banks. The third and final essay of this dissertation provides M&A centric evidence on bank deregulation, consolidation, and stability in the U.S. banking industry. We primarily analyze the effects of two significant deregulatory acts of the 1990s that permitted U.S. banks to expand across states (the Riegle-Neal act of 1994) and functions performed (the Gramm-Leach-Bliley act of 1999). We employ difference-in-difference approach over M&A activity of U.S. (treatment group) and European (control group) banks over a time span of 1990-2009 in an unbalanced panel setting. We find a significantly positive effect of deregulation in spurring M&A centric consolidation in the U.S. banking industry. However, such effects are not fully reflected in the types of diversification aimed at in the two deregulatory acts. Moreover, we also show that M&A intensity and deregulation jointly cast a negative effect on the stability of U.S. banking industry –thus substantiating “Concentration – Fragility” view over banking.

Luxembourg is one of the most successful financial centers in the world. Initially associated with international syndicated loans, euro-bonds and euro-currency markets, Luxembourg has developed as a center for private banking and is currently the second largest center for the domiciliation of investment funds in the world after the US - with a portfolio equivalent to about sixty times the country’s GDP -, and the first captive reinsurance market in the European Union. As in many other financial centers, the interbank market plays an important role. This partly reflects intra-group operations of foreign banks using their Luxembourg branches and subsidiaries to adjust their liquidity position. More generally, Luxembourg has attracted foreign banks seeking to benefit from its favorable regulatory framework, political stability, language skills of the local workforce and the agglomeration of specialized skills in accounting and legal services.<p><p>The importance of the financial sector in Luxembourg implies that a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model with explicit modeling of the financial sector is indispensable in order to properly take into account the interaction between the financial and the real sector in the economy and the interconnectedness between different financial institutional sectors (e.g. commercial banks and investment funds). Explicit modeling of the financial sector also allows for an analysis of how the economy might respond to financial shocks.<p><p>This dissertation contributes to the literature by developing two analytical tools:<p><p>1.\ / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

La gestion des cas de maltraitance envers des personnes âgées en situation de vulnérabilité a beaucoup évolué au Québec, surtout avec l’adoption de la Loi visant à lutter contre la maltraitance envers les aînés et toute autre personne majeure en situation de vulnérabilité qui prévoit la dénonciation obligatoire au commissaire local aux plaintes et à la qualité des services, lorsque la victime est hébergée dans un centre d’hébergement et de soins de longue durée. De plus, la maltraitance financière a été identifiée comme l’une des orientations prioritaires du deuxième plan d’action gouvernemental pour contrer la maltraitance envers les personnes aînées. Depuis son entrée en vigueur, plusieurs initiatives ont été prises, notamment par l’Autorité des marchés financiers et l’Association des banquiers canadiens, afin d’encadrer davantage le secteur financier. Les institutions financières sont souvent identifiées comme étant des actrices de première ligne dans la lutte contre la maltraitance financière, mais contrairement à la lutte contre le blanchiment d’argent, les banques ne sont pas réglementées pour gérer des cas de maltraitance financière et matérielle sur des personnes aînées en situation de vulnérabilité. Les représentants des institutions financières au Québec ont montré leur volonté de participer à la lutte contre la maltraitance des personnes aînées en situation de vulnérabilité, notamment par leur participation au forum qui a eu lieu à Québec en 2018. Une intervention législative est-elle nécessaire pour atteindre ce but ? La dénonciation devrait-elle être obligatoire ? Les institutions financières peuvent-elles adopter certaines pratiques et protocoles, selon les lois actuelles en vigueur, afin de leur permettre de mieux prévenir et repérer les cas de maltraitance financière des personnes en situation de vulnérabilité et de connaître comment et quand intervenir ? Nous souhaitons apporter des réponses à ces questions dans ce mémoire. Pour y parvenir, nous exposerons d’abord le cadre législatif en vigueur au Québec, au fédéral et dans deux provinces : la Saskatchewan et la Colombie-Britannique. Nous ferons également une étude du cadre juridique en vigueur aux États-Unis et en Australie, à des fins comparatives. Nous explorerons ensuite les pratiques et les procédures mises en place par certaines institutions financières aux États-Unis et au Royaume-Uni. Nous croyons que notre étude permettra de démontrer qu’une intervention législative serait souhaitable pour encadrer les institutions financières canadiennes, mais qu’une dénonciation obligatoire serait contraire au principe de la bientraitance et au droit à l’autodétermination. Enfin, en nous inspirant des façons de faire dans les autres provinces et à l’international, nous proposerons certains protocoles et pratiques aux institutions financières québécoises. / The management of elder mistreatment cases has greatly evolved in Quebec, especially since the adoption of the Act to combat maltreatment of seniors and other persons of full age in vulnerable situations. In virtue of this law, certain people are obligated to report elder mistreatment cases to the Services Quality and Complaints Commission. In the most recent government action plan, known as the “Plan d’action gouvernemental pour contrer la maltraitance envers les personnes aînées 2017- 2022”, financial elder mistreatment is identified as one of its seven key elements. There have been some considerable steps taken to combat elder financial mistreatment, particularly by the Autorité des marches financiers who recently published a guide to help those working in the financial sector better serve their elderly and vulnerable clients. The Canadian Bankers Association also recently adopted a new Code of Conduct for the Delivery of Banking Services to Seniors (2019), although adherence to said Code is on a purely voluntary basis. While these initiatives remain voluntary, they provide a model framework from which financial institutions can build upon, if they wish to help combat elder financial mistreatment. The employees of financial institutions are often identified as a potential first-line of defense to help combat elder financial mistreatment, but there exists no federal legal framework, to regulate the financial sector. This absence of legislation is particularly evident when compared to the regulations imposed on banks to prevent and report situations of money laundering. During a roundtable discussion having taken place in Quebec City, certain bank representatives expressed the need for a framework that would better guide their interactions with vulnerable elderly clients, but does this framework necessarily need to be legal? Is legislative intervention required or can financial institutions use the current laws in force to adopt appropriate protocols that would help them better prevent and detect cases of elder mistreatment and intervene when necessary? In the first part of this thesis, we will present the current legal framework existing in Quebec, on a Federal level and in Saskatchewan and British Columbia. We will then present the regulation of the financial sector in the United States and in Australia, for comparative purposes. We believe that our presentation of the regulation of financial institutions in these countries and provinces will support our conclusion that a legislative intervention is highly advisable, while an obligation to report would go against the concepts of well-treatment (“bientraitance”) and of self-determination (“autodétermination”). In the second part of our thesis, we will present certain practices and protocols already enforced by certain financial institutions in the United States and in Great Britain and then demonstrate how they an be transposed and used in Quebec, in accordance with the current legal framework in force.