The 2025 IEF/SCOR Foundation for Science award for the Best Young Researcher in Finance and Insurance was presented back in March 2025, during the 18th Financial Risks International Forum in Paris. Organized by Institut Louis Bachelier, the theme of this year’s Forum was “Shaping Financial Research: Data, AI and New Challenges.”
The 2025 prize was awarded to Olivier Darmouni, Associate Professor at HEC Paris, for the quality and originality of his work on financial frictions, credit markets, and the real effects of unconventional monetary policies. His recent research also explores the mechanisms for financing the energy transition, particularly the phase-out of coal and the specificities of financing renewable energies. Combining empirical rigor with an applied economic approach, Olivier Darmouni offers a fresh perspective on the major transformations underway in the financial sector. He is the tenth winner of the IEF/SCOR Foundation prize.
The award was presented by Marie Brière, Chairwoman of the Scientific Committee of the Risks Forum, and Philippe Trainar, Director of the SCOR Foundation.
The Institut Louis Bachelier interviewed Olivier Darmouni during the Forum — click on the image below to watch the video on LinkedIn.
Philippe Trainar, Director of the SCOR Foundation for Science, commented: “This prize recognizes exceptional contributions to academic research in finance and insurance and is well deserved by Olivier Darmouni, whose work on understanding credit, financial stability, and public policy is particularly impactful.”
The Institut Europlace de Finance (IEF) launched The Best Young Researcher Award in 2005 for promising researchers under the age of 40. The “Best Young Researcher in Finance and Insurance” award has been sponsored by the SCOR Foundation for Science since 2016.
About the winner
Olivier Darmouni is a financial economist specializing in corporate finance, financial institutions, and microfinance. His work focuses on financial frictions and their effects on credit (banks and non-bank lenders), business investment, and the transmission of monetary policy — particularly unconventional interventions such as quantitative easing and corporate bond purchases in 2020. He also explores the financing of the energy transition (divestment from coal, financing of renewable projects). Academically, he has been a professor at Columbia Business School in New York, with a guest stint at Chicago Booth (2021-2022), and is currently an Associate Professor at HEC Paris, where he holds the Pierre Andurand Chair in Sustainability. He has a PhD in Economics from Princeton and is affiliated with the CEPR.
About the Institut Europlace de Finance and the Louis Bachelier Group network
Institut Europlace de Finance (IEF), Fondation du Risque (FdR) and Institut Louis Bachelier (ILB) form together the Louis Bachelier Group. The backbone of the Louis Bachelier Group (ILB, FdR, IEF) and its network is research that aims to promote sustainable development in Economics and Finance. The Louis Bachelier Group currently hosts more than 60 research programmes within four main societal transitions: environmental, digital, demographic and financial. www.institutlouisbachelier.org
About the SCOR Foundation for Science
The mission of the Foundation is to support scientific research. The SCOR Corporate Foundation for Science lends its support to various kinds of risk and (re)insurance-related projects, including university chairs, research projects, conferences and publications.
foundation.scor.com.
