Etienne Harb, PhD
Vice President, Research and Development
Etienne Harb is the Vice-President for Research & Development at Université La Sagesse. She holds a PhD in Economics (Financial Markets) from Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas, an MSc in Finance & Econometrics from Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas, and a Master’s degree in International Economics from Université Paris Nanterre. Her career spans university teaching, empirical research, and advisory work. She has held academic positions in finance at universities both in Lebanon and internationally. She has also served as a policy expert and consultant on projects with international organizations and consulting firms, including UN-ESCWA, UNDP, and World Bank–related partners. She co-authored multiple textbooks and high-impact journal articles. Her applied research focuses on financial risk management, volatility spillovers, market microstructure, high-frequency-trading regulation, and crypto-asset markets.
Qualifications
Ph.D. in Economics (Financial Markets) (2011), Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas.
M.Sc. in Finance & Econometrics (2006), Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas & École normale supérieure de Cachan (ENS Cachan).
M.Sc. in International Economics (2005), Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense (Paris X) & Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
B.Sc. in Economics (2000 – 2004), Lebanese University – Faculty of Economics & Business Administration (Section 2).
Certificate in Innovation & Creativity (November 2021), ESSCA Online Campus — persona method, user need-finding, creativity techniques, and willingness-to-pay estimation.
MATLAB for Financial Modeling & Applications (June 2014), MathWorks.
Financial Markets, Level 2 (June 2015), Cegos.
Professional Experience
Vice-President for Research & Development
Université La Sagesse – Furn El Chebbak, Lebanon
September 2023 – Present
Chair, Quality Assurance Steering Committee / Chair, Scientific Research Council / Chair, Editorial Board of ULS Publishing House / Chair, Institutional Review Board
Additional Academic Roles
Member, Scientific Research Committee – Universities Association of Lebanon (2024-Present)
Professor of Finance
ESSCA School of Management – Paris, France (ESSCA Online Campus)
September 2021 – Present
- Designed and tailored an M.Sc. in FinTech curriculum.
- Delivered courses in synchronous and asynchronous formats (e.g., Finance & FinTech in International Markets, Multinational Financial Management).
Previous Academic Roles
Associate Professor, Head of Finance Department
Université La Sagesse – Furn El Chebbak, Lebanon-September 2022 – August 2023
Assistant Professor of Finance
Notre Dame University – Zouk Mosbeh, Lebanon-January 2017 – August 2021
Assistant Professor of Finance
ESSCA School of Management (Paris Campus) – Paris, France-December 2012 – June 2017
– Head of the Finance & Risk Management Master’s program (2014–2017).
– Coordinator of multi-campus courses (Boulogne-Billancourt, Angers, Shanghai, Budapest).
– Contributed to accreditation processes (AACSB, EPAS, EQUIS).
Research & Teaching Fellow (ATER)
Université Paris II Panthéon–Assas – Paris, France-September 2009 – August 2011
Research & Teaching Assistant
Université Paris II Panthéon–Assas – Paris, France-September 2006 – August 2009
Editorial Appointments and Peer-review Service
Guest Editor, Journal of Global Finance – Special Issue: Banking, Environmental, Digitalization & Gender Challenges in MENA (link below) – February 2024 – Present
https://www.sciencedirect.com/special-issue/10ZTM9Z8N19
Editorial Board Member, Journal of Governance and Regulation (Virtus Interpress) & Journal of Business and Socio-Economic Development (Emerald) — 2019 – Present
Regular Reviewer — International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money; Economic Modelling; International Journal of Emerging Markets; Computational Economics; Economics Bulletin; Journal of Governance and Regulation; Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting; Journal of Applied Accounting Research; Competitiveness Review; Journal of Business and Socio-Economic Development — 2014 – Present
Other Recent Research Activities
Co-supervisor of thesis, CNAM & LIRSA — The Dynamics of Algo Trading and the Role of MiFID II: The Case of Euronext — August 2021 – August 2026
Organizing Committee Member & Discussant, workshop Crises and Resilience in Developing Countries: A Multidimensional Perspective, Université Saint-Joseph, Beirut – February 22-23, 2024, https://economix.fr/en/colloques-et-workshops/crises-and-resilience-in-developing-countries
Consultancy Service
Team Lead (Consultancy), UN-ESCWA — Analysis of Productive Sectors in Lebanon — January 2024 – August 2024
Socio-economic & Financial Sustainability Expert, UNDP — Management Plans for Nine Natural Reserves in Lebanon (with Oikos, Mores, Arz El Shouf) — April 2022–July 2023
Monitoring & Evaluation Expert, Welthungerhilfe (WHH) — Midterm evaluation in refugee camps (implemented by JAFRA NGO) — May 2022
Socio-economic Expert, UNDP — Direct and Indirect Costs of Wildfires in Algeria (5 deliverables) — April 2022
Case Study Creation & Review, Phi Management — Assessment/recruitment (CEO, CCO, junior auditors) — March – April 2022
Financial Expert, Statistics Lebanon Ltd. — Costing of Childcare Provision in Lebanon (report submitted to World Bank Mashreq Gender Facility) — November 2021
Teaching interests
- Financial Management
- Portfolio Management
- Financial Derivatives
- Corporate Finance and Investment Decisions
- Financial Risk Management
- Advanced Commercial Bank Management
- Managerial Accounting
- International Finance
- Fintech
Research interests
- Financial Risk Management,
- Credit Derivatives Pricing and Hedging
- Financial crises
- Microstructure of Financial Markets
- High-Frequency Trading Regulation
- Crypto-assets’ Behavior and Properties
- Volatility spillover
Publications
Harb, E., Nasrallah, N., El Khoury, R., & Hussainey, K. (2023). Applying Benford’s law to detect accounting data manipulation in the pre- and post-financial engineering periods. Journal of Applied Accounting Research, 24 (4), 745–768. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAAR-05-2022-0097
Bouri, E., & Harb, E. (2022). The size of extreme good and bad stock volatility shocks does matter. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money, 80, Article 101626. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intfin.2022.101626
Harb, E., Bassil, C., Kassamany, T., & Baz, R. (2022). Volatility spillover in leading cryptocurrencies and capital markets. Computational Economics, 63, 951–981. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10614-022-10318-7
Veryzhenko, I., Jonath, A., & Harb, E. (2022). Non-value-added tax to improve market fairness. Financial Innovation, 8, Article 18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40854-021-00327-0
El Khoury, R., Nasrallah, N., Harb, E., & Hussainey, K. (2022). Exploring the performance of responsible companies in the G20 during the COVID-19 outbreak. Journal of Cleaner Production, 354, 131693. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.131693
Harb, E., El Khoury, R., Daou, R., & Mansour, N. (2022). Risk management and bank performance: Evidence from the MENA region. Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, 32(4), 761–779. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFRA-07-2021-0189
Kassamany, T., Harb, E., & Baz, R. (2022). Investigating the hedging and safe-haven properties of Ethereum. Journal of Decision Systems. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/12460125.2022.2133281
El Khoury, R., Harb, E., & Nasrallah, N. (2022). Triple vectorial analysis of the impact of financial development on economic growth: Evidence from the Middle East and Central Asia. International Journal of Emerging Markets, 18 (10), 4301–4319. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOEM-07-2021-1060
Kassamany, T., Harb, E., Louhichi, W., & Nasr, M. (2022). Impact of risk disclosure on volatility, liquidity, and performance of UK and Canadian insurance companies. Competitiveness Review, 33 (1): 30–61. https://doi.org/10.1108/CR-10-2021-0129
Toumi, A., El Khoury, R., Harb, E., & Nasrallah, N. (2022). The effect of COVID-19 on the healthcare sector in the MENA region: A blessing or a curse? Journal of Modelling in Management, 18(4), 1093–1123. https://doi.org/10.1108/JM2-01-2022-0004
El Khoury, R., Nasrallah, N., & Harb, E. (2022). Did the intensity of countries’ digital transformation affect IT companies’ performance during COVID-19? Journal of Decision Systems, 33(2), 199–219. https://doi.org/10.1080/12460125.2022.2094528
Nasrallah, N., El Khoury, R., & Harb, E. (2022). Forensic accounting in a digital environment: A new proposed model. In Significance of forensic accounting techniques in corporate governance. IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-8754-6.ch007
Veryzhenko, I., Arena, L., Harb, E., & Oriol, N. (2017). Time to slow down for high-frequency trading? Lessons from artificial markets. Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1002/isaf.1407
Veryzhenko, I., Harb, E., Louhichi, W., & Oriol, N. (2017). The impact of the French financial transaction tax on high-frequency trading activities and market quality. Economic Modelling. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2017.01.021
Veryzhenko, I., Arena, L., Harb, E., & Oriol, N. (2016). A reexamination of high-frequency trading regulation effectiveness in an artificial market framework. In F. de la Prieta et al. (Eds.), Trends in practical applications of scalable multi-agent systems: The PAAMS collection (Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, Vol. 473). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40159-1_2
Harb, E., & Louhichi, W. (2016). Pricing CDS spreads with credit valuation adjustment using a mixture copula. Research in International Business and Finance. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ribaf.2016.02.003
Textbooks
Harb, E., Veryzhenko, I., Durand, X., & Murat, P. (2024). Finance (2nd ed.; Collection Open-Book). Maisons d’Éditions Dunod.
Estran, R., Harb, E., & Veryzhenko, I. (2021). Gestion de portefeuille (2nd ed.; Les Fondamentaux Business). Maisons d’Éditions Dunod.
Estran, R., Harb, E., & Veryzhenko, I. (2017). Gestion de portefeuille (Collection Management Sup). Maisons d’Éditions Dunod.
Harb, E., Batnini, F., & Durand, X. (2016). Mathématiques financières (Collection Aide-mémoire). Maisons d’Éditions Dunod.
Harb, E., Veryzhenko, I., Masset, A., & Murat, P. (2014). Finance (Collection Open-Book). Maisons d’Éditions Dunod.
Grants and Projects
100,000 euros Research grant from Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), France (Multidimensional Inequalities in Lebanon around COVID-19 and the National Economic and Financial Crisis — livelihood, education, labor market, health, digital), (with researchers from EconomiX CNRS UMR, France, and Université Saint-Joseph, Lebanon), November 2021 – March 2024.
Doctoral Research Scholarship and teaching fellowship from the French Ministry of Higher Education (Allocataire-Moniteur and Attaché Temporaire d’Enseignement et de Recherche – ATER at Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas), September 2006 – August 2011.
Community Services
Co-founder, Development Economics Research Network (Dev-Connect, https://dev-connect.org/) (International research network in development economics connecting researchers from developing and developed countries and hosting regular scientific webinars where early-career and senior researchers, especially from low- and middle-income countries, present to an international audience; sessions include live feedback from an invited panel with follow-up comments by email; mentoring program pairing junior with senior scholars; plus workshops and training to foster skills, collaboration, and knowledge exchange, ), July 2025 – present.