Research Associates
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Isabelle Agier
Isabelle Agier holds a PhD in Economics from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Brazil. She also graduated from the ENSAE and the Paris School of Economics (France). She has spent 5 years in Rio de Janeiro, including 4 years devoted to writing her thesis on the role of credit officers and the control for discrimination against women in loan allocation. Over that period of time, she cooperated with Vivacred, a NGO specialized in providing microcredit in Rio's favelas that recently joined the national Brazilian Programme "CrediAmigo". Her research focuses on the dynamics of intra-household financial decision-making in India, in cooperation with Paris 1 University, the IRD (France), and CERMi.
Email: isabelleagier@gmail.com
Zineb Aouni
Zineb AOUNI is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at emlyon Business School. Her teaching experience covers some fifteen years of coaching and teaching entrepreneurship. Zineb AOUNI obtained her doctorate in entrepreneurship at HEC Liège and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the European Microfinance Research Center (CERMi) of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Zineb AOUNI's research focuses on entrepreneur and investor cognition, entrepreneurship education, social entrepreneurship and public policies for entrepreneurship.
Britta Augsburg
Britta Augsburg is a Senior Research Economist in the development sector of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Centre for the Evaluation of Development Policies (EDePo), and an affiliated researcher at the United Nations University-Merit in Maastricht, the Netherlands. Her research concentrates on understanding the effectiveness of programs and policies that tackle constraints to productivity of poverty affected individuals and households, with a particular focus on credit and technology adoption constraints. She has worked on a number of studies related to microfinance and particularly the effectiveness of this financial tool in achieving improved outcomes for the intended beneficiaries. At present, a large part of her project portfolio focuses on sanitation technology – understanding information and financial constraints to uptake at the demand as well as the supply side. To this end, she is managing a number of large scale sanitation impact evaluation projects, primarily randomized field experiments, in India and Nigeria.
Beatriz Armendáriz
Beatriz Armendáriz is Associate Professor of Economics at University College London. She has worked as a Research Fellow at the OECD, has taught Economic Development at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Toulouse School of Economics, and Microfinance at the Solvay Brussels School of economics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles where she was recipient of the “Brains Back in Brussels Fellowship”.
She co-authored the first and second edition of The Economics of Microfinance with Jonathan Morduch, respectively in 2005 and 2010, MIT Press. Beatriz co-edited The Handbook of Microfinance with Marc Labie in 2011, and has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals. With Felipe Larraín, she has recently published The Economics of Contemporary Latin America, MIT Press, 2017, and, together with Aaron Graham, she is recipient of the World Savings Bank Institute 2019 Award for their work on micro-savings.
Beatriz Armendáriz grew-up in México where she founded the first Grameen replication in her native Chiapas in 1997.
Arvind Ashta
Arvind Ashta is a professor of finance, control and law at the Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Burgundy School of Business – CEREN in Dijon, France. He offers an optional course in Microfinance and has taught Microfinance as visiting faculty in Chicago, Brussels and Pforzheim, and provided student seminars in Barcelona, Hertfordshire, Nancy and Mysore. Microcredit, social entrepreneurship, and fintech are currently his main fields of research. He has authored "Microfinance: Battling a Wicked Problem" and “Realistic Theory of Social Entrepreneurship: A Life Cycle Analysis of Micro-Finance”. He has edited a book on "Advanced Technologies for Microfinance" and co-edited books on "MIS in Microfinance" and on "Slow Management". He has over eighty publications in international journals, including Ecological Economics, Strategic Change, Innovations, and Cost Management. He holds a B.A. (Hons.) in Economics from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University, a PGDM from IIM Calcutta, a LL.B., from Delhi University, a Doctorate in Law from the University of Paris 2 (Panthéon-Assas) and a HDR in Economic Sciences from the University of Lille 1 (Sciences and technologies). He worked 17 years in Corporate Enterprises in India and France in the fields of Management Control and Accounting before entering academics. He is a member of CERMi, the Research and Innovation Network (RRI) and an informal member of the European Microfinance Platform.
Eddy Balemba
Eddy Balemba Kanyurhi is an associate professor in the Faculty of Economics and Management at Catholic University of Bukavu, South Kivu, DRCONGO. He holds a PhD degree in Economics and Management from the Warocqué School of Business and Economics in Mons, Belgium. He has a master degree in Microfinance from Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (Université Libre de Bruxelles). His research interests include Microfinance, Banking Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Gender Analyis and Pychometric Analysis. He published in "International Journal of Bank Marketing", "Strategic Change" and "Innovations. Journal of Innovation Economics & Management". He also has forthcoming articles in "Mondes en Developpement" and "Revue Finance Contrôle et Stratégie".
Email: balemba.kanyurhi@ucbukavu.ac.cd
Ranjula Bali Swain
Johan Bastiaensen
I have an historical research interest in microfinance for rural development, immediately related to my involvement in the creation and the development of the Fondo de Desarrollo Local (FDL). The FDL is the microfinance institution that was created from within Nitlapan. Today, FDL is the largest and most rural/agricultural microfinance institution in Nicaragua, with a historical trajectory of innovation to which my IOB research has attempted to contribute over the years.
Email: johan.bastiaensen@uantwerpen.be
Olga Biosca
Dr Olga Biosca is a Senior Lecturer and lead researcher on Microfinance at the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health, Glasgow Caledonian University (UK). Olga is experienced in transnational comparative research dealing with economic exclusion and vulnerable groups and has extensively published in these topics. At present, Olga is principal investigator of the FinWell project, the first ‘Financial Diaries’ research project in the UK, which aims to explore the financial management strategies used by the low-income population, such as the use of microcredit, and how these connect to their health and wellbeing. She has also been involved in several national and international research projects such as, for example, the Horizon2020 projects TransSol, which investigates transnational solidarity at times of crisis, and SIRIUS, aiming at advancing integration of migrants, refugees and asylum applicants in European Labour Markets. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Sheffield, and an MSc degree in Development Economics from the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain.
Erwin Bulte
Erwin Bulte is a professor of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics at Tilburg University (The Netherlands), as well as a professor at the University of Wageningen (The Netherlands), where he is in charge of the department of Development Economics. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at Cambridge University (UK) and an advisor on agrarian and development economics for the World Food Organization.
James Copestake
James Copestake is a member of the Centre for Development Studies of the University of Bath since 1991. He teaches development economics at undergraduate and postgraduate level. He has carried out his own research and supervised doctoral students in the fields of agrarian change, microfinance, poverty, social protection and aid management. He has first-hand experience of carrying out research in India, Zambia, Malawi, Bolivia and Peru. Prior to joining the University he worked with the official British aid programme in Bolivia and India, and with non-government organisations in India and Zambia. He has carried research and consultancy sponsored by the Commonwealth Secretariat, DFID, ESRC, Ford Foundation, National Audit Office, Nuffield Foundation and the Wold Bank. James Copestake is an active member of the Development Studies Association. He has served as an external examiner for the universities of Birmingham, Bradford, Imperial College (Wye), Manchester, Reading, SOAS, Swansea and the Open University. He has a degree in economics from Cambridge, and an MSc and a PhD in agricultural economics from Reading.
He has published numerous articles, in the Journal of International Development, Development Policy Review, Small Enterprise Development, Journal of Development Practice, Journal of Microfinance and Journal of Development Studies.
Simon Cornée
Simon Cornée is assistant professor at the University of Rennes 1 (France) and researcher at the CREM CNRS. He holds a PHD in Management Science from the University of Rennes 1. His main research topics encompass financial intermediation, and more specifically financial cooperatives and social banking. He is also interested in the issues of governance and corporate financing in the context of worker/agriculture cooperatives and social enterprises. From a methodological stance, he pays attention to the decision processes and the organisational aspects with the aid of experimental and quantitative empirical tools. His papers include a publication in the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking.
He has a three-year field experience in a French social bank (Société Financière Coopérative de la Nef) and a one-month stay in a Bolivian association of MFIs (FINRURAL). He was awarded the 2006 "Finance and Sustainable" prize delivered by the FIR-EUROSIF. In 2012, he received the prize of the best PHD dissertation granted by the ADDES.
Marcella Corsi
Marcella Corsi is Professor of Economics at the Sapienza University of Rome. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Manchester (UK) and a degree in Statistics/Economics from University of Rome “La Sapienza”. In the past, she has carried out several research projects (e.g., about financial exclusion and microfinance, women empowerment, and migration) at international level. She has worked as consultant for OECD, European Parliament and European Commission, and for several Italian institutions.
Her research focuses on issues related to Social Inclusion, Social protection and Income distribution (often in a gender perspective). She is among the founders of the web-magazine inGenere www.ingenere.it and, since 2017, coordinates Minerva - Laboratory on diversity and gender inequality https://web.uniroma1.it/labminerva/en.
In the field of microfinance, she is the author of several articles published in English and Italian, and the editor of the book Donne e Microfinanza: Uno sguardo ai paesi del Mediterraneo (Aracne, 2008). She is currently member of the Research committee of the European Microfinance Network.
Anastasia Cozarenco
Anastasia Cozarenco is an associate professor of economics at Montpellier Business School. She holds a PhD in economics from Aix-Marseille School of Economics and benefited from the postdoctoral fellowship at the Centre for European Research in Microfinance (CERMi), Université libre de Bruxelles. Her current research is focused on microfinance with special attention to regulation, non-financial services, subsidization, discrimination, and gender, from theoretical and empirical perspectives. She holds the Social and Sustainable Finance Chair at Montpellier Business School created in partnership with the Caisse d’Epargne Languedoc Roussillon. She is a member of the European Microfinance Network Research Committee and the Director of the Yunus Center for Social Business and Financial Inclusion at Montpellier Business School. She published articles in Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Banking and Finance, Small Business Economics, and Economics Letters.
Lucia Dalla Pellegrina
Lucia Dalla Pellegrina is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Milan-Bicocca (Italy), Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Economics, Psychology and Social Sciences (CISEPS-Bicocca), Research Fellow at the Baffi-Carefin Center for Economic and Financial Research (Bocconi University), Associate Researcher at the Center for European Research on Microfinance (CERMi), and Fellow at the Center for European Studies (CEfES-Bicocca). In 2005, she received her Ph.D. in Economics from Bocconi University, and became Assistant Professor at the University of Milan-Bicocca from 2006 to 2017. Her research interests focus on microfinance, banking, and empirical legal studies. Regarding microfinance, her current research focuses on loan repayment incentives and the trade-off between outreach and financial sustainability of MFIs; she has also conduced field experiments in developing countries. She published articles in World Development, Regional Studies, Journal of Financial Stability, Small Business Economics, Journal of African Economies, European Journal of Political Research, Development Policy Review, and European Journal of Development Research. In 2016, she has been granted the European Microfinance Research Award for the article “The Role of borrower-cosigner kinship relations on loan default”, co-authored with Antonio Scollo.
Email: lucia.dallapellegrina@unimib.it
Gregor Dorfleitner
Gregor Dorfleitner holds a degree in mathematics and business administration from the University of Augsburg, where he also did his Ph.D. thesis on index futures in 1998. He became full professor of finance at the Vienna University of Economics and Business in 2004. Since 2007 he has been full professor of finance at the Universität Regensburg, where he also has been director of the center of finance since April 2008. One of his main fields of research is the finance of microfinance, especially refinancing microfinance, risk management in microfinance and P2P microfinancing as well as green microfinance. He has published more than 60 articles in international journals such as Applied Financial Economics, Quantitative Finance, Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Insurance: Mathematics & Economics, International Journal of Theoretical & Applied Finance, European Journal of Operational Research, and the Journal of Banking & Finance.
Bert D'Espallier
Bert D'Espallier (PhD) is Associate Professor at Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel (HUB) and guest-lecturer at Antwerp Management School (AMS) where he teaches courses within the broad area of corporate finance, accounting, business analysis and valuation. In his teaching he emphasizes alternatives to profit-maximizing paradigms currently dominating the finance field. Such alternatives include the development of sustainable financial institutions, equitable financial markets and social businesses. His main research interests involve corporate finance, corporate governance and microfinance. He is member of the research group Finance, Accounting and Tax (FAcT) at HUB and affiliate researcher at the Centre for European Research in Microfinance (CERMi, ULB), the Norwegian Center for Microfinance Research (NOCMIR) and the Faculty of Business and Economics at KU Leuven. He has published in a range of economics, finance and development journals such as The European Journal of Finance, The Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, World Development, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of International Development, Applied Economics, among others. Ongoing research projects include the impact of subsidy uncertainty on MFIs, the influence of female management in MFIs, and the development of proxies for investment opportunities for unlisted SMEs.
Davide Forcella
Davide Forcella is post-doc researcher for the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) in the department of theoretical physics and mathematics at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). He obtained his PhD in physics in 2008 at the International School for Advanced Studies (ISAS/SISSA) and the Complementary Master in Microfinance in 2012 at the European Microfinance Programme (EMP). He has been working as researcher at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, and the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris.
His research in microfinance focuses on green microfinance in developing and developed countries and in particular on its role in sustainable rural development, ecosystems conservation, adaptation to climate change, access to renewable energy and energy efficiency for poor households. He moreover works on the development and implementation of environmental indicators for MFIs, over-indebtedness and informal lending. He is the author of the first study on green microfinance in Europe for the European Microfinance Network (EMN) and of one of the first research assessment on microfinance and payments for environmental services in the framework of Proyecto Cambio in Central America. He is member of the “Microfinance and Environment” action group for European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP). He manage together with ADA (Appui au Développement Autonome), members of IOB (Institute of Development Policy and Management), EMP and CERMi an internships research program on green microfinance for master students. He has field experiences in Nicaragua, Cambodia, Dominican Republic and Europe.
His research activity received in 2013 the FIR-PRI Finance and Sustainability European Research Award.
Email: davide.forcella@yahoo.it
Cyril Fouillet
Cyril Fouillet successfully defended his PhD Thesis in Economics and Management in October 2009 at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). He was then granted a Wiener-Anspach fellowship for a two-year post-doctorate position at the University of Oxford (Contemporary South Asian Studies Programme, UK). Cyril is currently working as a lecturer and Head of the Economic Section at the ESSCA Business School (France).
As a research fellow at the French Institute of Pondicherry (program "Labour, Finance and Social Dynamics"), he spent three years in India conducting his doctoral fieldwork on economical, spatial and political dimensions of microfinance. Cyril Fouillet’s research interests include the spatial dimensions of financial inclusion in South Asia, Latin America and Africa. He has an interest in the economic geography of monetary and financial practices, and he tracks the ideas and ideologies in development policies.
He also worked for the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (Rural Finance Group), the Foundation for world agriculture and rural life (FARM) and the Financial Sector Deepening Trust, Kenya.
Supriya Garikipati
Dr. Supriya Garikipati is a Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at the Management School, University of Liverpool. She completed her doctoral studies in economics from the University of Cambridge in 2000, after which she joined the Department of Applied Economics at Cambridge as a Research Associate. She moved to Liverpool in 2003. At Liverpool, she is the co-director of India in the World Research Centre and also heads the Development Studies Knowledge Platform at the Management School.
Dr Garikipati's research interests are primarily in the area of development studies. Within this discipline, her research mainly examines the impact of public policy interventions in India with a focus on gender and poverty. Her work includes the impact assessment of India?s microcredit program, an assessment of its pro-poor approach to economic liberalization and the impact of feminisation of agricultural labour in India. More recently, she has started to explore the driving factors behind fundamental human behaviour like trust and discrimination and their impact on development policy. One of her current projects examines the interplay of colour, caste and class in modern India, especially the implications for its employment and marital markets. While the geographical focus of her research is mainly India, Dr Garikipati also has research interests in the development experiences of Africa and the UK. Dr Garikipati's work has been published in several high ranking development journals like the European Journal of Development Research; Development and Change; Journal of International Development; Journal of Peasant Studies; World Development; World Economy and many more. She has also co-edited several special issues in journals and contributed to significant reference books in this area. She has lead on several international projects sponsored, among others, by DFID, British Academy and Newton Trust.
Pascal Glémain
Dr. Pascal Glémain is Assistant Professor (HC)-Post Doctorate Graduate (French HDR) at the University Rennes 2 (France), both in Social Economy and in Business Science. He is full researcher near the french laboratory "Spaces & Societies"- ESO UMR 6590 - CNRS. He holds a PhD in Regional Financial and Banking Economics in The EU (University of Nantes), a Post Doctorate Graduate (French HDR) in Management Science (University of Rennes 1) about "social businesses and local development", and a Post Doctorate Graduate (French HDR) in Economics - Social and Solidarity Economy (University Rennes 2) about "social microfinance". He was cooperating researcher at United Nations Research Institute on Social Development (2015), and in the International Comparative Social Enterprises Models-ICSEM (EMES research program) (2013-2016). Since 2013, He is editorial director of the University Press of Rennes (PUR): for “économie, gestion et société”. He was an elected member of the RIUESS, and he is International Scientific Expert for the “Fonds de Recherche du Québec-Society and Culture”. Since 2018, he his Member of the CIRIEC's International Scientific Council, and, expert near the french institute ISBL-ASBL. His main research topics encompass solidarity finance, private equity crowdfunding, and microfinance in the sub-Saharan area and in the EU. He is also interest in the topics of work integration social enterprise as learning organizations (WISELOs) in France (with the French Network Chantier Ecole) (strategic management, organizational targets, not-for-profit accountability). He has a fifteen-year fieldwork experience in Solidarity Finance and Microfinance both in France and in Benin, and Romania. In 1995 and in 1996, he received the Atlantic Thesis granted prize. His publications are concerned with the following research review: International Journal of Social Economics, RERU, Recma, Management & Avenir, Gestion 2000, Economie-Géographie et Société, Economie et Société, Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Revue Française de Gestion-RFG, and editorial membre from "Entreprises & Société"-ENSO.
Aleksandr Grigoryan
Aleksandr Grigoryan is an invited scholar in SKEMA Business School (Sophia Antipolis) and Université Côte d’Azur, and an adjunct professor at the American University of Armenia. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Turin and Master’s in Economics from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna. His current major research areas are microfinance, financial inclusion and microeconomics of banking. Minor areas are inequality, poverty, labor markets and international trade. Aleksandr Grigoryan has publications in Applied Economics, Journal of Experimental and Behavioral Economics, Empirical Economics, International Migration, Eastern European Economics, among other journals. Dr. Grigoryan is currently engaged in projects using global datasets on microfinance institutions. His collaboration with well-known scholars in the field has started a decade ago. He also provides consultancy to reputable international organizations such as World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
Isabelle Guérin
Dr. Isabelle Guérin holds a Ph.D. in Economics and is currently a research fellow at the Institute of Research for Development (Provence University). As a socioeconomist, she specializes on interactions between household behaviour, vulnerability and social justice. She mainly deals with researches related to 1) household survival and livelihood strategies and 2) collective action and NGOs interventions, with a focus on microfinance, empowerment programmes and linkages with public policies. The main geographic areas of her fieldwork were Europe and West Africa, and are now India and North Africa.
Currently, Dr. Guerin is head of the research programme “Labour, finance and social dynamics” of the French institute of Pondicherry and the leader of the research programme “Rural employment and microfinance” of the French Ministry. She is also an expert for various institutions and organisations (I.L.O., Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations…) and teaches in various European Masters (Toulouse II, Provence university, University of Mediterranée…). She is the author of Bonded Labour in India (with Breman and Prakash) and she has published in various journals (Journal of Economic Studies, Revue Française de Socioeconomie, Economic and political weekly, Development and change).
Begona Gutiérrez Nieto
Begoña Gutiérrez-Nieto is Professor in Finance at the Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain). She is also an Associate Researcher in the Centre for European Research in Microfinance (CERMi) at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). She has authored several research articles and books on microfinance.
Her PhD on microfinance in Spain received the “Outstanding PhD Thesis Award”, “ESIC-CAI Research Award 2004” and the “La Caixa Research Award on Social Sciences 2004”. She also received the “First Prize on Quality Research on Human Development 2008” by the University Chancellors from Madrid for her research on microfinance institutions efficiency. She received the “United Nations PRI (Principles for Responsible Investment) 2017 Finance and Sustainability European Research Award” under the Best Published Research Article category.
She has been the editor-in-chief of the Iberoamerican Journal of Development Studies (2011-2017): http://ried.unizar.es/index.php/revista
Valentina Hartarska
Valentina Hartarska is an Alumni Professor at Auburn University (USA) where she teaches finance, agribusiness, management, econometrics, and economic development. She holds a PhD from the Ohio State University, a Master degree from a joint programme between the Central European University (Hungary, now Austria) and the University of Essex (United Kingdom), and a BS in Finance from UNWE (Bulgaria). Dr. Hartarska has published on different topics in microfinance, such as efficiency, governance, regulation, impact analysis, women in leadership and entrepreneurship. She has served as the major professor to more than 30 graduate students from several countries and from different disciplines and her research was funded by the US Department of Agriculture and NIH among others. Dr. Hartarska publications appear in the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Journal of Banking and Finance, World Development, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Food Policy, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics and others.
Niels Hermes
Niels Hermes is professor of International Finance at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). After completing his doctoral thesis in 1995, Dr Hermes has worked on topics such as the relationship between financial development and economic growth, the determinants and consequences of international capitals for economic growth and the impact of providing microfinance on the performance of both microfinance institutions and their clients. He has published articles on these topics in numerous reputable journals such as: Economic Journal, Journal of International Money and Finance, World Development, Small Business Economics, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Business Ethics, International Business Review and Corporate Governance: An International Review.
Knar Khachatryan
Knar Khachatryan joined the CBE in 2013 as an Assistant Professor. She holds a PhD in Management from SKEMA Business School, France, and a double degree of French Doctorate from University of Nice, France. Prior to joining the AUA, she was a visiting faculty at the French University in Armenia (UFAR). Also she worked at SKEMA Business School as teaching assistant lecturing both in English and French, and administering business simulations Her scholarly activity focuses on microfinance, financial inclusion, poverty and development studies. Her recent publications have appeared in Review of Development Economics, Journal of Eastern European Economics, Caucasus Survey, Strategic Change. She has a number of on-going research projects focusing on multidimensional poverty, financial inclusion and regional development.
Susan Johnson
Susan Johnson is Senior Lecturer in International Development at the University of Bath (United Kingdom). Her main research interest is in investigating the means through which social and cultural factors influence the economy and in particular how these factors influence the operation of markets in developing countries. She therefore investigates at the boundary of economics and other social sciences, in particular drawing on economic anthropology and economic sociology to investigate the social and cultural dimensions of market transactions and market development. Her research can also be characterised as empirically driven and methodologically inductive in seeking to understand this boundary through the study of actually existing markets and the processes through which they are instantiated.
Having started her career as a development practitioner, her priority is research that engages theory with policy and practice. The core focus of her work to date has been on microfinance and the wider financial markets it operates within along with the move to digital financial services in the form of mobile money. She has therefore been engaged with a number of research and action research projects relating to the microfinance sector and with a range of funders and with a strong focus on Kenya and East Africa.
She is Director of the Centre for Development Studies at the University of Bath.
Cécile Lapenu
Cécile Lapenu, a citizen of France, is the executive secretary of CERISE (Comité d’Echange, de Réflexion et d’Information sur les Systèmes d’Epargne - crédit – https://cerise-spm.org). CERISE is a platform of France-based, leading MicroFinance support organizations (CIDR, CIRAD, GRET, IRAM and IRC-SupAgro). CERISE was started in 1998, and since then it has organized various studies and seminars on the following themes : financing of agriculture, governance, social performances and impact, MFIs in remote rural areas, etc. Before joining CERISE in January 2001, Cécile Lapenu was a post-doctoral fellow at IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC, USA) working on the Rural Finance Team in the Food Consumption and Nutrition Division. From 1993 to 1997, she worked on the development of rural financial system as a researcher at the Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement. She received a Ph.D in agricultural economics from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Montpellier.
Carolina Laureti
Carolina Laureti is currently lecturer at the Department of Economics, Econometrics, and Finance of the University of Groningen. Her research focuses on behavioral finance, precisely on the design of banking contracts in the presence of agents with behavioral anomalies. Carolina is interested in elucidating the impact of behavioral anomalies on agents’ borrowing and savings decision-making. From there, Carolina explores questions related to contract design, such as moral hazard, screening with asymmetric information, pricing, etc. Carolina holds a PhD in Economics and Management Science (ULB and UMONS, 2014), a Master degree in Economics (University of Rome La Sapienza, 2001) as well as a Complementary Master in Microfinance (EMP, 2009). She did her postdoc at the University of California at Berkeley (2014-15) and at the Université libre de Bruxelles (2015-17). She has worked as consultant for the Ministry of Economics and Finance (Italy); International Fund for Agricultural Development (Italy); InterSOS—Humanitarian Aid Organization (Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Angola); Réseau Financement Alternatif (Belgium); and Microsave (India).
Robert Lensink
Robert Lensink (orcid.org/0000-0001-6448-5164) is a development economist, with specific research interests covering Gender Studies, Impact Analyses, Microfinance, and Rural Development. He is Professor of Finance at the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), University of Groningen (UG), part time Professor of Finance and Development, Wageningen University and a “Professor Extraordinary” at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. He is the vice-dean research at FEB, UG. Robert has a wide international network. He is External Research Fellow SOAS (University of London), Associate Researcher Centre for European Research in Microfinance (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Resource Person for the African Economic Research Consortium, full member of the European Development Research Network, and a member of the steering committee of NWO/WOTRO. Robert has published more than 120 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Economics journals like American Economic review, Economic Journal, and Journal of Public Economics, Psychology Journals, like British Journal of Social Psychology and Frontiers of Psychology, and multidisciplinary journals like World Development. He has authored 4 books, edited 4 books, and published more than 30 book chapters (see https://www.rug.nl/staff/b.w.lensink/). Robert has supervised 30 PhDs, 4 Postdocs and more than 100 Master students. In 2018 he has been appointed Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau for societal influence. Robert has been PI and project lead for many multidisciplinary research projects
Roy Mersland
Roy Mersland is Professor of International Business and Development at the School of Business and Law at the University of Agder. He has a PhD in International Business from the University of Agder, an MBA from Universidad Técnica Federico Santa Maria (Chile/Ecuador), and a Master’s degree in Business and Marketing from BI Norwegian Business School.
Mersland is Director of the Center for Research on Social Enterprises and Microfinance (CERSEM) at the University of Agder (https://cersem.uia.no/), and he is Director of PhD education at the School of Business and Law at the University of Agder. He has published extensively in high-ranking international journals, such as Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Management Studies, World Development and Journal of Business Ethics.
Mersland combines his academic career with engagement in business practice. He has worked as a business and development consultant in more than 20 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. He was one of the founders of Banco D-MIRO, an Ecuadorian bank specializing in microfinance. Mersland is Chairman of technology start-up company Checkin (www.checkin.no), and he sits on several boards. He also works as an advisor for several public and private Norwegian enterprises.
Solène Morvant-Roux
PhD in economics Solène Morvant-Roux is a microfinance project leader at Farm Foundation (www.fondation-farm.org) and Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Institut de Recherches pour le Développement, France. Her research interests include microfinance in rural areas with a focus on financing agricultural activities, debt, social institutions and migration.
From a methodological perspective, her research relies on a combination of qualitative and quantitative tools.
As a PhD candidate she lived one year in Mexico as a research fellow of the Centre d’Etudes Mexicaines et Centroaméricaines (CEMCA) where she studied a microfinance institution implemented in remote rural areas. She also has short term field experience in different countries such as: Morocco, Togo, Guinea and Madagascar. Dr Morvant-Roux is the author of articles published in Savings and Development, in Revue Tiers-Monde and in Horizons Bancaires.
Patrick Murhula
Patrick Murhula Cubaka is a teaching assistant in the Economics and Management department at the “Université Catholique de Bukavu” (UCB) in DR Congo.He also works as a research assistant at the “Laboratoire d’Economie Appliquée au Développement (LEAD-UCB)”. He holds a master’s degree in financial management at UCB and a Specialised Master in Microfinance at the “Université Libre de Bruxelles” (European Microfinance Program). He holds a PhD degree in Economics and Management from the Warocqué School of Business and Economics in Mons, Belgium, and from UCB. His research topic is “collective ownership and cooperative governance sustainability”.
Ephrem Niyongabo
Ephrem Niyongabo successfully defended his PhD Thesis in Economics and Management on January 12th, 2011, at the Warocqué School of Business and Economics (University of Mons - UMONS).
He joined the World Bank since February 15, 2018 as Economist for Burundi based in Bujumbura, within the Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment (MTI) Global Practice, East Africa Unit.
Prior to joining the World Bank, he worked as Expert Advisor to the Board in charge of Monetary Policy and Financial Markets at the Bank of the Republic of Burundi (November 2015 to mid-February 2018); as Senior Research Economist in Private Sector Development, Regional Integration and Trade Policies at the Institute for Economic Development in Burundi (May 2011 and October 2015); and as consultant and researcher for national and international institutions operating in Burundi (e.g. AfDB, UNDP, ACBF, EU, BTCCTB).
He also holds a degree in advanced development studies from University of Liège (Belgium) and a BA in International Economics from University of Bejaia (Algeria). His doctoral research has focused on public policy and microfinance in rural and agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa. His professional experience started in the field of election planning and management as a United Nations Official in Burundi in 2005. His experience with microfinance in the field was set in Burundi where he did research on sustainability of 3 MFIs (FENACOBU, CECM, and COSPEC) and got in touch with the microfinance actors at the macro and meso levels.
Anaïs Périlleux
Anaïs Périlleux is currently doing a postdoctoral research in the Department of Economics/Economic Growth Center at Yale University as a visiting fellow working with Prof. Timothy Guinnane and supported by a fellowship of the Belgian American Educational Foundation (BAEF). She completed her Ph.D. in economic and management as a FNRS Research Fellow at the Warocqué School of Business and Economics (UMONS) under the supervision of Prof. Marc Labie. Her Ph.D. Thesis, titled "Governance and Growth of Cooperatives in Microfinance", has been honored by the "Edgard Milhaud Prize 2012" awarded by the CIRIEC (International Centre of Research and Information on the Public, Social and Cooperative Economy).
Anaïs Périlleux holds a Master Degree in Economics (Université libre de Bruxelles - ULB), and also graduated from the European Microfinance Programme (EMP). For the completion of her academic studies, she worked with a cooperative of cotton producers in South Mali and with a microfinance institution in Calcutta. Other professional engagements included the study of a network of cooperatives in Senegal on behalf of the Belgian NGO, SOS Faim, and the Senegalese farmers movement “FONGS”) and a mission in Kinshasa. She also realized multiple field studies in West Africa, especially in Senegal, for her Ph.D. Thesis.
Marc Raffinot
Marc Raffinot is an associate professor at Paris-Dauphine University (France), specialising in Development Economics, Development Finance, Development Policies, and Development Macroeconomics. He also teaches at Sciences Po Paris (France) and at the Lebanese University (Beirut). Professor Raffinot works as an expert for the European Commission (Applied Macroeconomics for developing countries) and as a consultant in development economics. He was formerly a Research Director at SEDES (Société d’étude du développement Economique et social). He also was formerly director of Vocational Training at the ESGE (Ecole Supérieure de Gestion des Entreprises, Dakar, Sénégal, now CESAG), and professor at ITPEA (Institut technologique de Planification et d’Economie Appliquée, Algiers, Algeria). Professor Raffinot has over 35 years of experience in microfinance, in Francophone African countries, Latin America (Nicaragua) and Asia (Cambodia). His fields of expertise include: macroeconomics, debt sustainability, public and development finance.
Trond Randøy
Trond Randøy is Professor of International Financial Management at University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway. Professor Randøy has a PhD from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration and a MBA from the University of Oregon.
His research interest focuses on Corporate Governance and International Business. He has authored more than 20 articles in journals such as Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Management and Governance, International Business Review, and Journal of Banking and Finance. Professor Randøy has also been leading several research projects with both public and private funding. He is currently board member in three different companies.
Koen Rossel-Cambier
Dr. Koen Rossel-Cambier is an economist with expertise in financial inclusion, international trade, migration and social protection. He was awarded the Doctoral Degree (PhD) in Applied Economic Sciences in 2011 (UMONS) for his innovative research on combined microfinance schemes.
He has obtained Masters Degrees in respectively Applied Economic Sciences (KUL), International Trade (HUB) and International Relations (KUL-Université Fribourg). He began his professional career as an academic assistant for a MBA programme with the Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussels. Consequently he was Cabinet adviser for the Belgian Secretary of State for International Development attached to the Prime Minister of Belgium. Over the last 20 years, he has worked on long-term assignments overseas based in amongst others Senegal, Italy, Morocco, the Eastern Caribbean, Belgium and Malta with international organisations such as the ILO, the World Bank, UNICEF and the European Commission.
Currently he is Senior Evaluation Officer coordinating evaluation efforts within the European Asylum Support Office. He has authored numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals, working papers, text books and evaluations tackling a wide range of socio-economic challenges.
Joakim Sandberg
Joakim Sandberg is professor of practical philosophy at University of Gothenburg, as well as professor of economics and finance from a humanist perspective at University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He is director of the Financial Ethics Research Group in Gothenburg. Joakim was selected as Wallenberg Academy Fellow by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2014.
Joakim does research in the intersections between moral and political philosophy and studies in business and economics. Much of his recent work has focused on how to get financial institutions such as banks and pension funds to take a stronger responsibility for the societal and environmental effects of their activities. But he is also interested in the individual case, that is, to what extent consumers like you and me have a duty to buy more responsible and sustainable goods and services.
Claudia Savarese
Claudia Savarese has passed successfully a joint PhD programme in Management at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Université de Liège (ULg). She worked under the supervision of Professor Marek Hudon and Professor Benjamin Huybrechts. She carried out her research on inter-organizational relations between social enterprises and corporates, with a focus on FairTrade organizations. She is also interested in rural finance and value chain financing. In 2015, she conducted a three month research on the rice value chain in Burkina Faso. She has previous working experiences at the Financial Division for Eastern and Southern Africa of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the European Microfinance Network (EMN) and the Trade Section of the Canadian Embassy in Rome. In 2015, she completed her Advanced Master in Microfinance at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (European Microfinance Program). She holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations (LUISS Guido Carli in Rome) and a Bachelor’s Degree in International Development and Cooperation (University L’Orientale in Naples, Italy)
Email: claudia.savarese@ulb.be
Coline Serres
Coline Serres is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher on Institutions for Collective Action at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University in the Netherlands. She successfully defended a Ph.D. in Economics and Management at the Centre for European Research in Microfinance (CERMi) of the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in June 2021. She worked under the joint supervision of Professor Marek Hudon (ULB) and Professor Tom Dedeurwaerdere (Université catholique de Louvain, BE). Coline’s Ph.D. topic was "Social Ventures and the Commons" and focused on the governance mechanisms of for-profit social ventures governing commons, mostly in a Northern context. Her research interests evolve around social ventures, governance, and commons goods. In particular, Coline has a strong interest for the legal forms dedicated to for-profit social ventures.
Email: serres@rsm.nl
Jessica Schicks
Jessica Schicks successfully defended her PhD Thesis in Economics and Management at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, academic year 2012/2013. Continuing in line with her previous research on the double bottom line character of the inclusive finance industry, her doctoral research has focused on the over-indebtedness of microfinance customers from a perspective of customer protection. In addition to publishing her PhD papers in highly recognized academic journals and in a peer-reviewed book, Jessica has published a practitioner-oriented report on her over-indebtedness research with the Center for Financial Inclusion and has co-authored a CGAP Occasional Paper with Richard Rosenberg.
She also holds a Masters level degree in Economics and Management (University of Witten/Herecke, Germany) and earned an MPhil in Development Studies from Cambridge, UK. Her work experience covers a broad range of topics, including microfinance work with KfW, the United Nations Capital Development Fund, and an Opportunity International MFI in Ghana. Since 2007, Jessica worked as an international banking consultant with McKinsey & Company, focusing on commercial banking for retail and corporate customers as well as inclusive finance.
Following her PhD, Jessica continues her efforts for protecting the customers of MFIs by taking over management responsibility in the field. She has decided to join Accesbank Zambia (AB Bank) as their Chief Operations Officer.
Mathias Schmit
Mathias Schmit is the founder of SAGORA Lease & Risk Management, a network of senior risk professionals merging extensive leasing and banking experience with strong analytical skills and innovation. Mathias holds a Phd in finance and has published numerous scientific papers on the impact of Basel II on the financial industry. He is also a professor of Finance at the Solvay Brussels School, Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium).
Jean-Michel Servet
Jean-Michel Servet holds a PhD. in economics from the Université Lumière Lyon 2. He teaches Development economy at the The Graduate Geneva (Geneva) since October 2003 and was teaching Economics at the Université Lumière Lyon 2 from 1990 to 2003. He was also visiting professor at the Brown University of Providence in the United-States in 1992 and associate professor at the Senghor University in Alexandria (Egypt) in 1993, 1994 and 2006.
From 2001 to 2003, Prof. Servet was research director at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) at the French Institute in Pondicherry (India). He was the vice-president of the Comission of Social science of the IRD in 2001, and had created and directed the Centre Walras (CNRS-Université Lyon 2) from 1997 to 2001. He was responsible of the Finance and Exclusion research program of the Centre Walras, and research director of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (1994-1996). Prof. Servet collaborates with numerous institutions, among which the Institut Karl Polanyi (Concordia University) in Montréal, the ARAFDES, the ILO, and the Caisse des dépôts et consignations.
He has published articles in Finance et Bien Commun, in the Revue internationale de l’Economie Sociale, in the Journal des Anthropologues, the Journal of Consumer Policy, and is the author of the reference book Banquiers aux pieds nus, la microfinance.
Mankal Shankar Sriram
MS Sriram graduated from the Institute of Rural Management in Anand and was a research fellow at the Indian Institute of Management of Bangalore. He is currently Professor and Chairperson of the Finance and Accounting Area of the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad (IIMA). His teaching responsibilities include Financial Reporting and Analysis in the Post-Graduate Programme and an Elective on Microfinance Management for PGP-ABM. He also co-teaches a course on Social Entrepreneurship. His current research and writing concern the financial flows of the rural poor, the transformation experiences of NGOs to MFIs and the understanding of the financial management practices of seasonal migrants. MS Sriram has published books on Microfinance and Development and has also contributed to numerous publications. He has published research papers in Small Enterprise Development, Journal of Rural Development, and Journal of Microfinance, among others. MS Sriram also works as a consultant, and has done missions for various international and national organisations. He has now been appointed as the ICICI Bank - Lalita D Gupte Chair Professor in Microfinance.
Ritha Sukadi Mata
Ritha Sukadi Mata successfully defended her PhD Thesis in Management Sciences ("Microfinance and Remittances") on April 30th, 2012, at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (SBS-EM, Université libre de Bruxelles - ULB). She holds a Master in management engineering from the University of Mons (UMONS), and a Master in Microfinance (European Microfinance Programme - EMP).
She has occupied a position as teaching assistant at the SBS-EM. As an academic, she focused on microfinance in Developing countries (she did on-the-field missions in many countries such as Burkina-Faso, Equateur, Mali), and on the economic impact of migrants’ remittances on developing countries’ economies and microfinance institutions. She has worked for two microfinance NGOs in Luxembourg (ADA) and Brussels (PlaNet Finance).
Ritha has joined ADE’s permanent staff as an evaluation expert in March 2013. ADE (www.ade.eu) is a private consulting company that delivers objective and independent services to assist private and public decision-makers in the formulation of rational economic decisions and in monitoring their implementation. Evaluation at the level of aid programmes and public policies is at the heart of ADE's range of activities.
Email: rithasukadi@hotmail.com
Hubert Tchakoute-Tchuigoua
Hubert Tchakoute Tchuigoua is a Full Professor of corporate and development finance. He is Associate Researcher at the Institute for Research in Management of Organizations (IRGO) at the University of Bordeaux and at the Center for European Research in Microfinance (CERMi). He holds a degree in economics and finance (Catholic University of Central Africa), a Ph.D. in management sciences (Bordeaux University), and an “Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches” (qualification to supervise doctoral dissertation) from Sorbonne Graduate Business School, University Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne. Hubert Tchakoute Tchuigoua has authored or co-authored articles in national and international high-quality journals, such as European Journal of Operational Research (EJOR), Economic Modelling (EM), Journal of the Operational Research Society (JORS), Journal of Business Research (JBR), Comptabilité Contrôle Audit (CCA), Finance (Review of the French Finance Association), Quarterly review of Economics and Finance (QREF)... Its main research centers cover at least five areas, namely: financing policy, financial reporting quality, corporate governance, loan contracts, and cyclicality. His research activities are in the field of development finance with a specific focus on the offer-side, that is, on very small banking organizations in developing and emerging countries also called microfinance institutions. Hubert TCHAKOUTE TCHUIGOUA was Associate Dean for Research at KEDGE Business School (France). Hubert Tchakoute Tchuigoua also serves as reviewer for several journals.
Email: hubert.tchakoute@kedgebs.com
Annabel Vanroose
Annabel Vanroose is currently working as an Associate Professor in Development Finance at the University of Stellenbosch-Business School in Cape Town, South Africa. She holds a PhD in Applied Economics and Management Sciences from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). She holds a Degree in Advanced Business Management (ULB) and is a graduate of the European Microfinance Programme (EMP). She worked as a professor at the Universidad de Piura (UDEP) in Peru, where she also engaged in research on impact evaluation. She has been lecturing on a part-time basis at the ULB in the framework of the EMP. During 2015-2016, Annabel benefited from a one-year postdoctoral scholarship at Cermi.
Her research focuses especially on the uneven development of the microfinance sector in developing countries and aims at identifying factors and processes that explain the development path of the sector. Her broader research interests lay in creating sustainable access to finance, impact and evaluation of development programs and aspects of socio-economic development more generally. Annabel has ample field experience in Latin America, India and South Africa.
Baptiste Venet
He has been lecturer in economy at the Université de Paris Dauphine for 10 years. He gave few courses in developement finance, macro and micro economy and econometry. Baptiste has also given lectures in microfinance at the IEP Paris (“Sciences Po” Paris). He works on the informal informelle, microcredits and microfinance and more generally on the finacial systems of the developing countries. Recently, he focused his works on the borrowers motivation to repay on time the individual loans and more specifically on the role of garantee on the individual loans.