EDHEC CONTRIBUTES TO THE ECONOMIC DEBATE IN LILLE AND NICE

“The role of EDHEC is to contribute to public debate beyond its mission to train young company managers.”

Olivier Oger

A series of conferences and debates is being held by EDHEC.

 On Thursday 17 March, more than 400 people took part in a debate on the topic “SHOULD WE LEAVE THE EURO TO DEFEND JOBS AND RETURN TO GROWTH?” on the Lille campus.

 This large-scale, interactive and public debate was led with enthusiasm by EDHEC’s Finance Professor, Noël Amenc, and Economics Professor, Marie-José Rinaldi-Larribe. 

It was moderated by Yannick Boucher, journalist and head of the economic division at La Voix du Nord.

Olivier Oger, Dean of EDHEC Business School, used this opportunity to highlight the School’s ambition to conduct research that has an impact on society: “The role of EDHEC is to contribute to public debate beyond its mission to train young company managers”.

In this respect the event was highly relevant as it dealt with a topical subject in the Europe of 2015: the exit from the euro.

The way in which the Greek crisis played out perfectly demonstrated how hard it is to reconcile changes in economic policy, a break from budgetary constraints and the liberal philosophy of the European construct while at the same time remaining in the euro. In light of this contradiction, some parties advocate leaving the euro and returning to the franc in order to regain budgetary and monetary sovereignty. They argue that it would make competitive devaluation possible in order to combat company relocations and the deindustrialisation of our country, and that it would provide the chance to boost investment by lowering interest rates or through new public spending; they see it as a pre-requisite for protecting jobs and returning to growth.
But are the anticipated benefits of an exit from the Euro real? Wouldn’t the devaluation of the franc see a return to inflation and a rise in the cost of both imported and French products, thereby reducing the purchasing power and consumption of households and threatening the main driver of growth in France?

These and many other questions were debated at the conference on 17 March.

The audience was given the chance to voice their opinions throughout this interactive event using an SMS-based voting system. After Noël Amenc and Marie-José Rinaldi-Larribe had laid out their economic theses and provided eloquent demonstrations, 90.7% of voting participants believed that an exit from the euro would not be a good thing for the French economy.