PhD in Economics

Impact of digitization of financial services on credit provision in rural areas/nDigitization of financial services in rural areas of India offers both opportunities and challenges. On the one hand, digitization facilitates tailored and customized financial products that respond to the diverse needs of agricultural households, women’s groups, and cooperatives. On the other, it allows scalable and affordable outreach, making credit accessible to previously excluded communities. The research investigates how such tailored digital credit products compare to standard one-size-fits-all microfinance models, what their impacts are on livelihood resilience, and what implications they hold for sustainability and financial inclusion./nDescription and objectives of the Pre-doc (3 moths) and PhD project (if continued)/nThe objectives of the pre-doc phase are to (i) Map the digital services of a project partner organization in India; (ii) Conduct qualitative impact assessments through focus groups, and (iii) Assess the structure, quality, and scale of data to inform feasibility and design of future impact assessment. This phase is designed to generate proposals for stand-alone academic contributions that will form the foundation for the later PhD research./nThe objectives of the PhD Project (if continued) are to: (i) Assess perceptions of existing business models among borrowers and project partners; (ii) Analyse impacts of financial services on producers and enterprises; (iii) Compare outcomes with other financial providers (including cross-continental learning opportunities in Africa); and (iv) Identify enabling and constraining factors for scaling digital financial services in rural contexts./nHosting arrangements: At Wageningen university, the PhD is integrated in the Business Economics group and the Development Economics group. In India, this is with CIAT. The pre-doc position entails 3 months. The PhD-position (if continued) embraces an additional 48 months.