Philippe d'Astous wins the Award for the best master’s thesis

March 8, 2012

Philippe d'Astous (MSc 2011, Finance option) won the 2010-2011 Award for the best master's thesis, for his thesis entitled Analyse empirique des marges de crédit et de la probabilité de défaut des particuliers. The jury members – Claude Laurin, Full Professor and Director of the MSc in Administration program, Céline Bareil, Associate Professor (Management), and Claudia Rebolledo, Associate Professor (Logistics and Operations Management) – saluted the importance and relevance of Philippe’s research topic, its impact and the fact that his work provided access to previously unavailable data.

His thesis was directed by Georges Dionne, Full Professor (Finance) and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Risk Management. Professor Dionne strongly supported Philippe’s candidacy for the award, stressing the value of his thesis findings, which show that individuals who abuse lines of credit are more likely to default on their loans and, inversely, that those who are in financial difficulty rely heavily on their lines of credit in hopes of catching up.

Philippe is currently a doctoral student in risk management and insurance at Georgia State University, one of the top three U.S. departments in the field. During his MSc, he received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Canada Research Chair in Risk Management. For his doctoral studies, he has also received a scholarship from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC). 

A rigorous selection process is followed for choosing the Award for the best master’s thesis. The professors responsible for each MSc option first choose the best thesis in their options among the graduates who earned an A+ on their theses, and notify the finalists. They must then submit their application to the MSc Program Office, and a winner is finally selected by a jury. The Award for the best master’s thesis goes to the graduating student with the most outstanding thesis in terms of its contribution to advancing knowledge and management practices.

There were 216 new graduates in the program this year. We salute the excellent work of the other finalists for the 2010-2011 Award for best master’s thesis:

Amandine Dhennin, Information Technology option
Thesis title: Conceptualisation de la qualité des dossiers de justification de projets TI
Director: Guy Paré

Marjolaine Dicaire, Human Resources Management option
Thesis title: L'intégration en emploi des éducateurs dans les centres jeunesse : exploration de l'effet des stratégies organisationnelles et individuelles
Director: Dominique Bouteiller

Pierre-Yann Dolbec, Marketing option
Thesis title: Understanding the Impact of Experiences in a Retail Setting: A Branding Perspective
Director: Jean-Charles Chebat

Wassila Merkouche, Management option
Thesis title: La création de valeur par une institution financière pour le segment des entrepreneurs ethniques : le cas de la Caisse Desjardins de Mercier-Rosemont
Co-director: Marie-Claire Malo and Martine Vézina