Noame Khaldi’s thesis defense

Event details :

Thesis title: The origins and mode of regulation of an offshore financial infrastructure: the Luxembourg case (1839-2026)

The jury is composed of:

• Ms Yamina Tadjeddine-Fourneyron, Professor, University of Lorraine – Thesis Supervisor
• Mr Gunther Capelle-Blancard, Professor, University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne – Rapporteur
• Mr Jean-François Ponsot, Professor, University of Grenoble Alpes – Rapporteur
• Ms Eve Chiapello, Director of Studies, EHESS – Examiner
• Mr Rachid Belkacem, Senior Lecturer, University of Lorraine – Examiner
• Mr Olivier Crevoisier, Professor, University of Neuchâtel – Examiner

Abstract: This thesis examines the institutional forms that characterize the mode of regulation of Luxembourg’s financialized regime. Part I traces the financial center’s trajectory over the course of a century, allowing for an examination of the evolution of the institutional forms that constitute it (Chapter 1). It establishes that this configuration results from the adaptation of institutional mechanisms inherited from the industrial regime and reused by the financialized regime.

Chapter 2 conceptualizes the regulatory framework that stabilizes this configuration. The thesis proposes to understand it through the concept of offshore financial infrastructure (OFI), an industry dedicated to the legal labeling and relabeling of capital. An asset registered elsewhere enters and exits this system bearing a new legal designation that is enforceable against third parties. This operation requires a tangible presence of its own. Contrary to the notion of “phantom investment”, the OFI consists of human labor employing tens of thousands of people. Part II empirically examines this tangible presence through the institutional form of the wage relationship.

Chapter 3 characterizes the Luxembourg wage relationship through the rules governing wage formation. These rules co-produce a level of compensation that attracts and retains a workforce that the Grand Duchy does not necessarily train itself, thereby enabling the IFO to secure a labor force for which part of the reproduction remains the responsibility of border regions.

Chapter 4 extends the analysis by shifting the focus from wages to the social trajectories of workers. The study of intergenerational social mobility in the Lorraine corridor shows that cross-border mobility toward Luxembourg stems more from structural distortions than from increased social mobility, and that the promise of advancement is only partially fulfilled.