Essays on corporate governance

Dans cette thèse, nous étudions deux questions reliées à la régie d'entreprise en présence d'actionnaires importants, à savoir les rôles des groupes d'entreprises et les structures à plusieurs actionnaires significatifs. Premièrement, nous explorons les bon et mauvais cotés des groupes d'entreprises au Canada en utilisant les fusions et acquisitions comme laboratoire d'analyse. Nos résultats suggèrent que les rendements boursiers autour de l'annonce des firmes affiliées . à un groupe ne diffèrent pas de ceux des firmes indépendantes. Cependant, à l'intérieur des groupes contrôlés par des familles, les firmes situées en bas de la pyramide et les firmes riches en liquidités font des acquisitions moins attrayantes. Une analyse de la propagation de l'effet d'annonce d'une acquisition est conforme à l'hypothèse de mauvaise allocation des ressources au sein, des groupes contrôlés par des , familles puisqu'il semble que les profits soient dirigés vers les firmes non contraintes financièrement. Finalement, une analyse des fusions intra-groupe n'est pas compatible avec l'hypothèse de ± tunnelisation ¿ ni celle des marchés internes de capitaux efficients. Globalement, nos résultats soulignent plutôt le mauvais coté des groupes d'entreprises et suggèrent que le rôle joué par ces derniers est déterminé princîpalement par l'environnement institutionnel et l'identité de l'actionnaire dominant. _ Deuxièmement, nous nous demandons si les structures à plusieurs actionnaires significatifs (SPAS) jouent un rôle dans la régie de 1252 entreprises de l'Asie de l'Est. Nous concluons que la présence, le nombre et la taille des actionnaires multiples sont associés avec des primes d'évaluation. Résultat d'égale importance: l'effet des SP AS est plus prononcé dans les firmes où les possibilités de détournement des fonds et les besoins de financements sont élevés. Finalement, les SP AS atténuent la tendance de IV l'actionnaire principal .à réduire le risque. Généralement, nos résultats, assujettis à plusieurs tests de robustesse, impliquent que les SPAS jouent un rôle bénéfique dans la régie d'entreprise en exerçant une surveillance sur les tentatives de détournement des fonds

Collectivism and the Costs of High Leverage

Prior literature shows that high leverage is associated with losses in market share due to unfavorable actions by customers and competitors. Building on this literature, we investigate the effect of collectivism on the product market performance of highly leveraged firms. Using a sample of 46 countries over the 1989–2016 period, we find significantly lower costs of high leverage for countries with higher collectivism scores. Moreover, we find that the impact of collectivism on high leverage costs is more pronounced for firms with high product specialization and with financially healthy rivals. In additional analysis, we find that collectivism helps highly leveraged firms retain employees and obtain trade credit from suppliers. Our findings thus suggest that a country’s culture affects corporate financial outcomes by influencing the actions of firm stakeholders

Segmentation of networks from VHR remote sensing images using a directed phase field HOAC model.

We propose a new algorithm for network segmentation from very high resolution (VHR) remote sensing images. The algorithm performs this task quasi-automatically, that is, with no human intervention except to fix some parameters. The task is made difficult by the amount of prior knowledge about network region geometry needed to perform the task, knowledge that is usually provided by a human being. To include such prior knowledge, we make use of methodological advances in region modelling: a phase field higher-order active contour of directed networks is used as the prior model for region geometry. By adjoining an approximately conserved flow to a phase field model encouraging network shapes (i.e. regions composed of branches meeting at junctions), the model favours network regions in which different branches may have very different widths, but in which width change along a branch is slow; in which branches do not come to an end, hence tending to close gaps in the network; and in which junctions show approximate 'conservation of width'. We also introduce image models for network and background, which are validated using maximum likelihood segmentation against other possibilities. We then test the full model on VHR optical and multispectral satellite images

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Reduce the Costs of High Leverage? Evidence from Capital Structure and Product Market Interactions

Research on capital structure and product market interactions shows that high leverage is associated with substantial losses in market share due to unfavorable actions by customers and competitors. We examine whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects firms’ interactions with customers and competitors, and whether it can reduce the costs of high leverage. We find that CSR reduces losses in market share when firms are highly leveraged. By reducing adverse behavior by customers and competitors, CSR helps highly leveraged firms keep customers and guard against rivals’ predation. Our results support the stakeholder value maximization view of CSR

Country-level institutions, firm value, and the role of corporate social responsibility initiatives

Drawing on transaction cost theories and the resource-based view of a firm, we posit that the value of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives is greater in countries where an absence of market-supporting institutions increases transaction costs and limits access to resources. Using a large sample of 11,672 firm-year observations representing 2445 unique firms from 53 countries during 2003–2010 and controlling for firm-level unobservable heterogeneity, we find supportive evidence that CSR is more positively related to firm value in countries with weaker market institutions. We also provide evidence on the channels through which CSR initiatives reduce transaction costs. We find that CSR is associated with improved access to financing in countries with weaker equity and credit markets, greater investment and lower default risk in countries with more limited business freedom, and longer trade credit period and higher future sales growth in countries with weaker legal institutions. Our findings provide new insights on non-market mechanisms such as CSR through which firms can compensate for institutional voids

Inflection point model under phase field higher-order active contours for network extraction from VHR satellite images

The segmentation of networks is important in several imaging domains, and models incorporating prior shape knowledge are often essential for the automatic performance of this task. We incorporate such knowledge via phase fields and higher-order active contours (HOACs). In this paper: we introduce an improved prior model, the phase field HOAC `inflection point' model of a network; we present an improved data term for the segmentation of road networks; we confirm the robustness of the resulting model to choice of gradient descent initialization; and we illustrate these points via road network extraction results on VHR satellite images

Les sociétés musulmanes de bienfaisance dans la Tunisie des années 1930

Dans le cadre de cette rencontre sur “Migrations et solidarités en Méditerranée”,  je me propose d’évoquer les premiers résultats d’une enquête que je viens de commencer sur les sociétés de bienfaisance en Tunisie dans l’entre-deux guerres. Ces sociétés étaient nombreuses, très nombreuses dans la Régence de Tunis. Toutes les composantes de la population avaient leurs propres associations de bienfaisance. Il y avait celles créées pour venir en aide aux plus démunis parmi les différentes coloni..

Phase diagram of a long bar under a higher-order active contour energy: application to hydrographic network extraction from VHR satellite images

The segmentation of networks is important in several imaging domains, and models incorporating prior shape knowledge are often essential for the automatic performance of this task. Higher-order active contours provide a way to include such knowledge, but their behaviour can vary significantly with parameter values: e.g. the same energy can model networks or a dasiagas of circlespsila. In this paper, we present a stability analysis of a HOAC energy leading to the phase diagram of a long bar. The results, which are confirmed by numerical experiments, enable the selection of parameter values for the modelling of network shapes using the energy. We apply the resulting model to the problem of hydrographic network extraction from VHR satellite images

Le français de Tunisie et l’Autre dans les années 1920-1930

Dans les années 1920-1930, deux blocs se faisaient face : le bloc européen et le bloc autochtone. Chaque groupe cherchait à se définir et à développer ses revendications l’un par rapport à l’autre. C’est à travers l’étude de la presse que sera étudié le bloc des Français de Tunisie par l’intermédiaire de l’image que se faisaient les Français d’eux-mêmes et celle qu’ils avaient des autres communautés vivant dans la Régence.In Tunisia as early as 1920-1930 two parties opposited each other : the européen coalition and the autochthonal coalition. Each group looked for to became clear and to spred out his claims one with regard to the another. It is through press’s study that the french coalition in Tunisia will be studied in order to lay hold the image they had from themselves just as the other communities living in the Regency

Enfermer et interdire les fous à Paris au XVIIIe siècle : une forme d’exclusion ?

Le problème des fous en France à l’époque moderne est étudié sous deux aspects, d’abord dans les rapports des familles à leurs proches malades puis dans l’organisation politique du traitement de ce problème. La police et l’enfermement des fous se situent dans le cadre d’un Etat de plus en plus centralisé, qui exerce un contrôle rigoureux sur l’ensemble de la société dont tous les marginaux et les fous. L’instrument de cette politique est appelée le « Grand Renfermement ».Mad’s problem in France during the modern age is syudied with families to their near sick persons then in the treatment’s political organization of this problem. Police and mad’s confinement take one’s place in the frame of a State more and more centralized which makes use of a strict checking on the whole society whom all marginal people and mads. Political implement is called the « Great Confinement