Projects
Transnational Normativity in an Age of Estrangement. Loans and Credit in Consilia and Decisiones in the Northern and Southern Low Countries (ca. 1500-1680). KU Leuven
In the early modern period, the Low Countries performed a key role in trade and commerce on the European continent. In their ‘Golden Ages’, Antwerp and Amsterdam attracted merchants from all over Europe, and even beyond. The development of commerce and finance within this transregional reality raised new normative questions on how to deal with novel financial techniques. At the same time, public, private and ecclesiastical debtors were in a ...
Challenges to the Global Financial System: Covid-19 and Climate Change KU Leuven
The world is facing two dramatic challenges: Covid-19 and Climate Change. The global financial system needs to deal with these challenges. Its design and functioning is key in determining how we adjust to these shocks and determines social welfare for the generations to come. The objective of this research proposal is to provide academic guidance in the design of a financial system that allows to address these fundamental challenges.
Essays on Corporate Finance in Export-Oriented Belgian Firms KU Leuven
This research project aims to establish an understanding of the linkage between export activities and issues in corporate finance of Belgian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In spite of SMEs being the main contributors to economic growth and development, the extant literature on the linkage between internationalization and corporate financing policy is confined to large listed firms. This research gap stems largely from a lack of ...
Testing and demonstrating the implementation of the underlying practices of a carbon farming scheme as a systemic innovation in support of the F2F Strategy KU Leuven
FarmCarbon aims to validate, demonstrate and implement a result-based carbon farming scheme that aims to increase farm-based carbon sequestration and storage in soils in order to achieve healthy soils and climate neutral farming by reducing GHG emissions.
Achieving this objective requires linking results delivered (GHG emissions avoided or CO2 sequestered) as well as payments made to the farmer. First, such a scheme requires a ...
Balancing policy space versus policy constraints? A critial legal analysis of WTO disciplines on subsidies and countervailing measures. KU Leuven
Sustainable Policies for the Financial Sector: Monetary Policy, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Developments KU Leuven
The role and behavior of European state-owned enterprises in times of crisis. Ghent University
China’s model of state capitalism and the Great recession have renewed interest in state-owned enterprises (SOEs). This project uses a unique pan-European firm-level database to analyze: the performance of SOEs compared to private firms; the role of SOEs in how economies cope with large-scale shocks; and whether SOEs mitigate the impact of financial markets’ failure in crisis times.
Determinants and consequences of tax avoidance in private firms. KU Leuven
Essays on Recent Developments in International Trade KU Leuven
This doctoral dissertation contains five chapters on various topics on empirics in international trade. The first two chapters estimate the impact of trade agreements on exports using a gravity model. Most of the gravity literature looks only at the total effect of trade agreements and ignores trade diversion. These potential adverse consequences on third countries have been well-known since Viner (1956), but empirical evidence has been ...