François Derrien is a Professor of Finance at HEC Paris. His research is in corporate finance, with a focus on how the environment of firms affects their financing and investment decisions, and ultimately, their performance and value. In that vein, he has studied the impact of security analysts on corporate policies, as well as the effect of the horizon of investors on firms’ decisions. More recently, his work has focused on understanding how local labor markets affect firms. In particular, he studies the impact of local demographics on the ability of firms to innovate and to grow.