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Seminar 1 “GENDER RESEARCH IN DEVELOPMENT FINANCE”
February 5 @ 12:00 - 13:30
Dear Community,
The Manoogian Simone College of Business and Economics at American University of Armenia (AUA) and the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) are excited to launch a Research Seminar and Policy Brief Series on “Closing Gender Gaps Through Economics Research”.
The Research Seminars examine critical themes including women’s political participation, gender differences in career choices, and methodological innovations in economic research. The seminars feature speakers from academia and policy institutions who are at the forefront of research on gender economics. With the start of the seminar series, a Policy Brief series on Gender Gaps in Armenia will be launched.
More information and further details about the program are accessible on the project’s webpage.
The pioneering seminar will focus on “Gender Research in Development Finance” and will be led by Dr. Bert D’Espallier.
The seminar is scheduled on February 5, 2026 at 12:00 in PAB 233W Conference Room at AUA.
About the seminar:
This seminar offers an overview of gender research conducted within the field of development finance. It introduces theoretical mechanisms and methodological challenges that shape empirical work on gender, before zooming in on a portfolio of papers examining the role and impacts of female leaders, female loan officers and female clients as well as their interactions in the microfinance sector. The empirical evidence reviewed spans research on both formal microfinance institutions (MFIs) and informal savings groups (SGs). The seminar connects these empirical findings to broader theoretical constructs on hybrid organizations and concludes by outlining policy implications for practitioners.
About the speaker:
Dr. Bert D’Espallier is Professor Financial Management at KU Leuven (Belgium). He is also Associate Researcher at the Center for Research on Social Enterprises and Microfinance (CERCEM, UiA, Norway) and the Centre for European Research in Microfinance (CERMi, ULB, Belgium). His teaching and research focuses on Sustainable Finance. Recent research projects deal with the dynamics of informal savings groups; social due diligence in hybrid institutions; subsidization issues and expansion trade-offs in microfinance institutions.
Register for the research seminar here.
This event offers an excellent opportunity to discuss your research ideas and projects with the speaker.
We look forward to seeing you in person!
Sincerely,
On behalf of the Organizing Committee
Dr. Knar Khachatryan, Professor, Manoogian Simone College of Business & Economics
Academic Director, Office of Sponsored Programs & Technology Transfer
