hec phd thesis download

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Writing a good dissertation or thesis

The learning center team is at your disposal to assist you in your documentary research via our research assistance service ..

Identifying your project

Taking the time to define the right topic is a very important step in the essay process. With the answers to the 3QPOC questions, you will be able to extract the concepts that will define your subject. Mind maps can also help you to have an overview of your project. In addition, it is essential to review existing research. This should allow you to see if there is enough material to address your topic, if its scope is realistic, and if anyone has already answered your question.

The Learning Center has student papers that have been awarded an A or B grade and are not confidential. From our search portal, select "HEC PhD Theses" or "HEC Dissertations and theses"  in the tab "New items-selections".

Preparing your research

To begin, make a list of keywords using dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, manuals, etc. Break down each concept into a series of keywords, search for synonyms or equivalent terms. Once you have defined all your keywords, we recommend that you use Boolean operators to filter the results, combining or excluding specific words from your search "(AND/ET, NOT/SAUF, OR/OU)".

You can conduct your research using the Learning Center's resources (databases, news articles, journals, books and ebooks, dissertations and theses).

Managing your bibliographic references

Citation management software allows you to keep a database of the sources you use (books, journal articles, websites, etc.) when doing research. You can then select them when you cite your sources in your written work and automatically produce bibliographies from the citations you have included.

The Learning Center offers an article on the use of citation management software: Zotero.

Writing your bibliography

The bibliography is a very important part of your thesis. It allows you to confirm your knowledge of the subject and to recognize the people behind the ideas you have developed in your research. It also allows the reader of your work to deepen it by identifying the documents you have consulted.

The Learning Center has produced a guide to help you build your bibliography in a consistent and standardized way.

Citing bibliographic references

Plagiarism is presenting someone else's words or ideas as your own without acknowledging the source. Thus, when writing your dissertation or thesis, it is important to indicate the various sources that were used to fuel your thinking. Even when summarizing or paraphrasing information found in books, articles or web pages, you must credit the original author.

To assist you in this process, the Learning Center provides a document on plagiarism and how to cite your sources. 

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PhD Thesis Defense, Huan Tang, Finance

Congratulations to Dr Huan Tang, Finance specialization, who successfully defended her Doctoral thesis at HEC Paris, on August 27, 2020. Huan joined the London School of Economics as Assistant Professor.

Huan Tang is amongst the winners of the 2020 AQR Top Finance Graduate Award which rewards the six best students in finance in the world selected by a jury of absolutely top academics in the field of financial economics. Read more here . 

Thesis Topic:  Three essays on FinTech

Supervisor:  Johan Hombert Associate Professor, HEC Paris

Jury members:    Viral Acharya Professor, NYU Stern School of Business Xavier Giroud, Associate professor, Columbia Business School    Denis Gromb, Professor, HEC Paris 

Johan Hombert Associate Professor, HEC Paris, Supervisor

Abstract:   This three-chapter thesis investigates the benefit and cost of financial technology (FinTech) for consumers and firms. The first chapter studies whether, in the consumer credit market, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms serve as substitutes for banks or instead as complements. I develop a conceptual framework and derive testable predictions to distinguish between these two possibilities. Using a regulatory change as an exogenous shock to bank credit supply, I find that P2P lending is a substitute for bank lending in terms of serving infra-marginal bank borrowers yet complements bank lending with respect to small loans. These results indicate that the credit expansion resulting from P2P lending likely occurs only among borrowers who already have access to bank credit.    This second chapter focuses on the potential cost of FinTech --- privacy intrusion. In particular, I study the value of privacy, for individuals, using data from large-scale field experiments that vary disclosure requirements for loan applicants and loan terms on an online peer-to-peer lending platform in China. I find that loan applicants attach positive value to personal data: Lower disclosure requirements significantly increase the rate at which applications are completed. I quantify the monetary value of personal data— and the welfare effect of various disclosure policies—by developing a structural model that links individuals’ disclosure, borrowing, and repayment decisions. Using detailed application-level data, I estimate that social network ID and employer contact are valued at 230 RMB (i.e., $33, or 70% of the average daily salary in China); for successful borrowers, this accounts for 8% of the average net present value of a loan. Requiring answers to these application questions reduces borrower welfare by 13% and costs the platform $0.50 in expected revenue per applicant.    In the last chapter, I turn to investigate the benefit of FinTech for firms. This chapter is in collaboration with Paul Beaumont (McGill University), AnneSophie Lawniczak (Banque de France), and Eric Vansteenberghe (Paris School of Economics). We evaluate the tradeoff for small business between borrowing from crowd-funding platforms and traditional banks. To do so, we link the universe of Fintech SME loans in France to the credit registry at Banque de France (the French central bank) to obtain a comprehensive credit history of SMEs borrowing from Fintech platforms. The main finding is that following a successful Fintech loan application, SMEs experience a significant increase in bank credit. This result is robust to the inclusion of a control group of SMEs with successful bank loan applications. Importantly, the increase in bank credit is only present for long-term categories, which require collateral. This suggests that FinTech platforms may expand credit access for SMEs by relaxing their collateral constraints. 

Key words: FinTech, financial intermediation, consumer credit, SMEs