Publication of the REF 129 april 2018

In recent years, relations between law and economics have been the subject of numerous studies due to the realization of the importance of judicial frameworks that delimit, frame, and thus influence economic activities and their performance. This issue of the REF offers a summary of the analyses on how law influences finance. Several different aspects of the question have each been reviewed. First of all, competition and the use of the major judicial systems—civil law and common law—in a global universe. Next, the importance and the effects of the legal framework on financing for companies are analyzed both from the point of view of issuers and investors. Finally, another section deals with the impact of the judicial framework and its modes on financial stability or how legal rules can facilitate or try to facilitate a useful and harmonious development of finance for the good of the economy. These different analyses have been completed with an inventory of the most significant studies on the relationships between law, economics, and finance over the last twenty years.

The Review also contains an article on financial history devoted to sales of exotic securities by the Société Générale at the very beginning of the twentieth century. Finally, the issue includes two additional articles, the first dealing with the measurement of long-term performance of European banks, the second with the sustainability of the French national debt.