| Variables | Description |
| Panel A: Board characteristics | Ethics & Boards |
| Board Size | Size of the board |
| % Women | Share of women |
| % Foreigners | Share of foreign directors |
| % of Busy Directors | Proportion of directors who have at least one other directorship during the same year in the SBF120 index |
| % of Young Directors | Proportion of directors who are less than 45 years old |
| % Independent | Share of independent directors (according AFEP-MEDEF code of corporate governance) |
| % Insider | Share of executive directors |
| % Industry Expert | Share of industry expert directors |
| % Industry Expert Independents | Proportion of industry expert independent directors |
| Supervisory Board | Dummy equal to 1 if corporate governance is a two tier board |
| Chair/CEO separation | Dummy equal to 1 if chairman and CEO are two distinct persons |
| Panel B: Firm characteristics | Infinancials & Thomson One Bankers |
| Nb employees | Number of employees |
| Ownership Float | Share of ownership which is held by significant shareholders (each shareholder should hold at least 5% of the capital) |
| MTBV | Market to book value |
| Prox volatility | Stock volatility measures as the standard deviation of the monthly stock returns over the previous 50 months |
| RDonSales | Research and development expenses on total sales |
| Leverage | Leverage equal to total debt over total equity |
| ROA (Return on Assets) | Equal to the ratio between EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) and beginning-year total assets |
| ROE (Return on Equity) | Equal to the ratio between net income and total equity |