I am an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at Columbia University. My research is at the intersection of finance, applied macroeconomics, and public economics. More specifically, my work investigates the interplay between government intervention and corporate financial and real behavior, at the micro and macro levels.
Prior to joining Columbia, I received a PhD in Finance from HEC Paris and a master's degree in economics from the Paris School of Economics and from Ecole Polytechnique/ENSAE.
You can contact me at np2842@columbia.edu.
You can download my resume here.
I study the financial crowding out effect of local government bank debt on corporate credit, investment, and output, using French administrative data over 2006-2018. Exploiting plausibly exogenous variation in bank-specific demand for local government debt, I show that a €1-increase in local government borrowing from a bank reduces that bank's corporate credit by €0.5, and lowers investment for its borrowers. Combining these reduced-form effects and a model, crowding out causes an aggregate output shortfall equal to €0.2 per €1-increase in local government bank debt. My results show that constraints on financing supply reduce the stimulus effect of debt-financed government spending.
Aggregate output loss due to crowding out
with Aymeric Bellon (Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania) and Louis-Marie Harpedanne (Banque de France)
This paper studies the resolution of disputes between firms and their lenders through external mediators, who suggest a non-legally binding solution to resolve a disagreement after communicating with all parties. We exploit an administrative database on firms' outcomes matched to the French credit registry and plausible exogenous variation in eligibility to public mediators across counties for identification. Credit, employment and investment increase following the mediation, causing an overall reduction in firms' liquidation of 34.6 percentage points. All the effects are driven by firms that borrow from more than one financial institution, supporting the view that mediators solve coordination problems between lenders.
Effect of the mediation on the probability of entering bankruptcy proceedings
with Anne-Laure Delatte (CNRS, CEPR) and Adrien Matray (Princeton University)
Formally independent private banks engage in an exchange of favor with local politicians to gain access to politically-controlled rents. Using French credit registry for 2007-2017, we find that banks grant favors to local politicians by increasing credit granted to the private sector by 9%-14% the year a powerful incumbent faces a contested election. As politicians return the favor, banks that grant more credit to private firms in election years gain market share in the profitable market for loans to local public entities after the election, when the incumbent is reelected. Thus, when politicians control the allocation of rents, formal independence does not ensure the private sector's effective independence from politically motivated distortions.
In the media (in French): Le Monde, Les Echos, Libération, France Culture.
Contested and influential incumbents before the 2017 election
with Alexandre Gazaniol (BPI), Johan Hombert (HEC Paris) and Frédéric Vinas (Banque de France)
ECON GU4913: Financial Policy and Regulation: Fostering Growth and Macroeconomic Stability.
ECON GR6226: Applied Macroeconomics & Finance
1133 International Affairs Building, Columbia University, NY 10027